Where Did NORAD’s Santa Claus Tracker Come From?
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has a serious job protecting our seas and skies from enemy invasions. Working with other commands, it detects and warns against attacks on North America. It monitors aircraft, missiles, and man-made objects in space. The command uses fighters to intercept and, if necessary, engage any threat to the continent. It also issues warnings regarding maritime threats throughout internal waterways and approaches to the U.S. and Canada.
But did you know it also tracks the movements of a certain jolly man in a red suit and his nine reindeer?
Santa and His Cold War Roots
Before NORAD was NORAD, it was the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), and it had a very special, unexpected mission in 1955. One night, Col. Harry Shoup, a 38-year-old father of four, answered a call on the command’s top-secret hotline – an unlisted number only known by a four-star general at the Pentagon, according to NPR. But instead of hearing a military general on the other line, Shoup was surprised to hear the voice of a small child, asking to speak to Santa Claus.
Initially expecting an emergency, the colonel paused before realizing this was not a national emergency, and it wasn’t even a prank. As soon as he made this realization, he “ho-ho-ho’d” and asked the youngster if they had been good that year. Eventually, Shoup spoke to the child’s mother, who told him this secret number was printed in a newspaper ad.
It turned out that Sears had a misprint in its ad for Santa Claus.
"Call me on my private phone and I will talk to you personally, any time day or night, or come in and visit me at Sears Toyland. Santa Claus," the ad read.
However, the number listed was not for Santa Claus, or even Sears. Instead, it was the number to the red phone – the secret line known only to the CONAD Operations Center in Colorado, and a select few leaders in the nation. A single digit had been misprinted.
Shoup knew he had a new mission and assigned a few airmen to answer these special incoming calls. As December continued, the airmen answered quite a few of these calls for Santa Claus, and had fun with this new mission, turning it into a joke across the command.
When the colonel arrived at the command center on Christmas Eve, a drawing of a sleigh with a reindeer replaced the usual airplane tracking on a board depicting North America. He paused when his troops apologized and offered to take it down. But this sparked an idea, and everything changed.
He called a radio station to announce his identity and share an observation of an unidentified flying object that looked like a sleigh. Afterward, radio stations called him hourly to ask for Santa’s latest location.
From then on, Shoup was simply known as “Santa Colonel.”
Volunteers answer calls from children across the globe wanting to track Santa's location.(DoD photo/The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement)
Tracking Santa’s Sleigh Today
The Atlantic reported that Shoup asked his public relations officer to announce his new mission of tracking Santa to the press, stating: “CONAD, Army, Navy, and Marine Air Forces will continue to track and guard Santa and his sleigh on his trip to and from the U.S. against possible attack from those who do not believe in Christmas.”
The annual tradition began and transitioned alongside NORAD when it was created in 1958, taking over for CONAD. According to Today.com, more than 160 volunteers talk to people across the world on the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline, and now, anyone can track Santa’s progress themselves. You can also monitor Santa’s journey on NORAD’s app, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Today, more than 130,000 callers globally contact NORAD on Christmas Eve each year, hoping to know when Santa will bring presents for under their tree.
Do you want to know where Santa is on Christmas Eve? Call the hotline at 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723)
Contact: Kaitlyn McCue, Public Relations, kmccue@woundedwarriorproject.org, 904.870.1964
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