NORAD tracks Santa for 60th year

Starting very early Thursday morning, the staff and 1,500 volunteers at North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) began their annual tracking of Santa.

Along with dispatches and 1-877-HI-NORAD, kids can go to noradsanta.org to find out where Santa is and how many gifts have been delivered.

Of course even if they are tracking him, NORAD Captain Ashley Peck reminds kids what she knew as a child, “you had to be asleep, if I wanted wanted Santa to be there.”

She joined the Brent Loucks Show on News Talk 650 CKOM this morning to bring an update from their maps and to talk about the past 60 years of NORAD’s involvement with tracking Santa.

In 1955, when NORAD was still it’s predecessor the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), an officer named Colonel Harry Shoup was at work and he picked up the phone.

“It just so happened that Sears had placed an add on how to call Santa and it happened to be the operations centre at CONAD,” Peck said.

So Shoup went to work.

“He looked it up and used our radar and let the kids know where Santa was and although it started as an accident, a pure accident, we are honoured to continue the tradition.”

All Santa tracking happens out of the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.

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