[Vision2020] Tracking Santa

[Tom Hansen]

NORAD commences Santa Tracking Operations at 3:00 AM Pacific Time (5:00 
AM, Central Time, Jane) on Wednesday (December 24, 2008).

>From NORAD's (North American Aerospace Defense Command) Santa Site at:

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/whytrack.html

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Whay NORAD Tracks Santa

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

The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & 
Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone 
number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to 
the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of 
Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check radar for 
indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children 
who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born. 

To listen to Colonel Shoup talk about the experience, click here:

http://www.noradsanta.org/media/audio/shoup.mp3
 
In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States created a bi-
national air defense command for North America called the North American 
Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD. NORAD inherited the 
tradition of tracking Santa.

Since that time, NORAD men, women, family and friends have selflessly 
volunteered their time to personally respond to Christmas Eve phone calls 
and emails from children. In addition, we now track Santa using the 
internet. Last year, millions of people who wanted to know Santa's 
whereabouts visited the NORAD Tracks Santa website.

Finally, media from all over the world rely on NORAD as a trusted source 
to provide Christmas Eve updates on Santa's journey. 

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NORAD's Santa Tracker
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html
 
Merry Christmas, Moscow (you, too, Jane).

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"For a lapse Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist Universalist 
Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason ever to go 
to work."

- Roy Zimmerman


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