NORAD will help kids track Santa

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), charged with overseeing the air and space security of the United States, will be tracking the Christmas Eve flight of Santa Claus again this year.

Children can log on to www.noradsanta.org to follow his progress on the radar screens across the country.

With the 366th Fighter Wing tasked for an Operation Noble Eagle assignment this week (protecting the air security of the United States), some of the planes from the wing may very well wind up escorting Santa to make sure his trip is a safe one.

For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa.

The tradition began on Christmas Eve in 1955 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, Col. Harry Shoup, had his staff check radar data for 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 location.

Thus, the tradition was born.

In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States created a bi-national air defense command for the North American continent called the North American Air Defense Command, known as NORAD, which inherited the tradition of tracking Santa.

Since that time, Canadian and American men and women who work at NORAD have responded to phone calls from children personally. Additionally, media from all over the world call NORAD on Christmas Eve for updates on Santa's location. Last year the www.noradsanta.org website was visited by millions of people who wanted to know Santa's whereabouts.

The website also contains a number of activities for children.