NORAD kicks off 50th anniversary of tracking Santa

[bananas]

http://www.norad.mil/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.news_rel_11_21_05



Lt.-Gen. Rick Findley, deputy commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, and Robert Taylor, senior property manager at Citadel Mall, perform the ceremonial ribbon cutting during the Nov. 18 launch of the Citadel Mall's Santa Tracking Station.

Photo by Tom Kimmell

Nov. 21, 2005

NORAD kicks off 50th anniversary of tracking Santa

By Sgt. 1st Class Gail Braymen, NORAD Public Affairs

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- In 1955, military operators in the Continental Air Defense Command, predecessor to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, first tracked Santa Claus' magical Christmas Eve journey around the world. This year, NORAD is kicking off the 50th anniversary of Santa tracking, and it's shaping up to be a season of "firsts."

<snip>

The tradition of tracking Santa began in 1955, when a local Sears, Roebuck and Co. store ran a newspaper ad urging children to make a phone call on Christmas Eve and talk to Santa Claus. As fate would have it, the phone number was misprinted and, instead of reaching Santa, youngsters found themselves talking with Air Force Col. Harry Shoup of the Continental Air Defense Command at Cheyenne Mountain.

Rather than hanging up, Shoup and his troops answered every child's call that night with a report of Santa's location. CONAD personnel kept up the practice until 1958, when the North American Aerospace Defense Command was formed and took over Santa tracking duties.

<snip>

Last Christmas Eve, volunteers at Cheyenne Mountain answered nearly 55,000 phone calls and 35,000 e-mails from children around the world. During the month of December, the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site had 912 million hits from 181 countries.

This year, about 500 volunteers -- most of them U.S. and Canadian military personnel and their families -- will report for telephone-answering duty on Christmas Eve. But already, youngsters are sending messages to Santa via the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site.

"E-mails are arriving from India and Ireland and all over the world already from children with their wish lists who want to talk to Santa," Tomassi said. "We receive, on average, 200 e-mails a day."

NORAD Tracks Santa volunteers will answer calls from 2 a.m. MST Dec. 24 to 2 a.m. MST Dec. 25 at 1-877-HiNORAD (1-877-446-6723), toll-free in the United States; or [phone]. The NORAD Tracks Santa Web site, available in six languages, is at www.noradsanta.org and will go completely live on Nov. 25.

[Botany]

1. Ah guys where were you on 9/11

4 planes turned around in mid air and you did not do shit.

[AX10]

2. Our tax dollars hard at "work"!

:eyes:

[rodeodance]

5. oh, we all need a little of the christmas spirit.

[bbinacan]

3. I think it's kinda cool

I remember listening to the track on the radio when I was a kid. Call me sentimental.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

4. I loved this as a kid

and my kids loved it. I think my dad loved it more than any of us. He always told us about it.

[MercutioATC]

6. ATC "tracks" Santa. They put a flight plan in the computer.

Of course, we don't track anything on radar but flight strips print for the route.

[unhappycamper]

7. That pic is HUGH!!!!!111!

677.4 KB (693653 bytes) to be exact.

Perhaps a dial up warning in the header next time??

[bananas]

8. Sorry!

In the original article, they used html tags to resize it and make it look smaller, I didn't realize it was so big until after I pasted it in.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. Every year, I hate this crap

I would put a stop to it in an instant, if I had somehow had the power to do so. And reprimand everyone involved.