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Annual NORAD Santa Tracker Up And Running

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the gentleman-get-me-the-president-on-the-horn dept.

SumDeusExMachina writes: "NORAD is at it once again folks! You can track Santa as he travels across the globe via a nifty Real Media stream." Apparently, this guy has been making some changes up North, too, including stealth technology, so I hope the radar tracks.

1 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. As noded into E2... by teleny · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The NORAD Santa Report owes its existence to a typo in a local newspaper in Omaha,
    Nebraska. In the mid-Fifties, a local department store had an actor impersonating Santa Claus,
    that kids could call on Christmas Eve. (Presumably, the guy told the kids that "he'd be right over" and tell them to get to bed early.)

    Unfortunately, the number had one digit wrong, which yuppers, patched the rugrats into NORAD.
    The somewhat amused personnel, married and with kids themselves (as per regulation,
    according to then-current psychological theory) took to saying "Well, we're an Air Force base, not
    Santa Claus, but yes, we're tracking Santa right now."

    A few winters of this were enough to get everyone's story straight, and to retire the number (except for Santa reports). In 1958, they began releasing live reports to TV and radio stations, casting high-ranking (and often retired) officers asuld get a "full NORAD welcome" (of escorting state-of-the-art fighter jets) if seen over US airspace. Creepy, when you think of it...

    --
    teleny, friend of cats.