Tracking Santa on Christmas Eve With Norad's Santa Tracker
By Cynthia Kirkeby
Dec 6, 2007, 09:37 PST
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Track Santa on Christmas Eve
"This is the 51st year that NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa. The tradition began after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. store advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included an inadvertently misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first "Santa" call on Christmas Eve 1955. Realizing what had happened, Colonel Shoup had his staff check radar data to see if there was any indication of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Indeed there were signs of Santa and children who called were given an update on Santa's position. Thus, the tradition was born. In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States decided to create a bi-national air defense command for the North American continent called the North American Air Defense Command. Canada and the U.S. believed they could better defend North America together as a team instead of separately.
The Command carried out its first Santa tracking in 1958 after inheriting the tradition from CONAD. Since that time, Canadian and American men and women who work at NORAD have responded to phone calls from children personally." They have a powerful system called the North Warning System which lets them track Santa as he leaves the North Pole on Christmas Eve.
Apparently, Rudolphs's nose gives off an infrared heat signal that is similar to a missle! Wow! There's a lot of energy in that nose of his! That's what Norad uses to find Santa's sleigh.
Starting November 25th, listen to Christmas music, see photos of Santa from last year, learn more about Norad, and find out more about Santa and his love of cookies on this wonderful site.
© Copyright 2007 by ClassBrain.com
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