It was the heat of the Cold War. Relations between The U.S. and the Soviet Union were at historic lows. Everyone was on edge…and then…on December 24, 1948, the United States Air Force issued an emergency communique claiming that an early warning radar net to the north had detected “one unidentified sleigh, powered by eight reindeer, at 14,000 feet heading 180 degrees.” It was the first time that the United States Armed Forces issued a statement about tracking Santa Claus’ sleigh on Christmas Eve.
According to legend, a Sears department store placed an advertisement in the Colorado Springs newspaper The Gazette, which told children they could place a call to Santa Claus and included the number ME 2-6681 (7). The call came through to Colorado Springs’ Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center as one digit was misprinted (8). The Strategic Air Command went on high alert, and the U.S. went to DEFCON 3!
Colonel Harry Shoup, who was a Crew Commander on duty, answered the first call. He not only assured the child he was Santa, but he told his staff to give all children who called in later a made-up “current location” for Santa Claus. Who would have guessed that what started because of a typo has flourished into one of the Department of Defense’s largest community outreach programs.
NORAD now tracks Santa every year. The website receives several million unique visitors from more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Volunteers typically answer more than 130,000 calls to the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline from children across the globe, and a tradition was born.
Each year since, NORAD (North America Air Defense Command), formerly CONAD, initially formed to be the first line of warning and defense against a Soviet secret attack, has loyally reported Santa’s location on December 24 to millions of children and families across the world. Thanks to thousands of volunteers along with government and corporate contributors, NORAD Tracks Santa has persevered for more than 65 years to this day.
So tonight, when you are sunk deep in the couch from that blunt or edible, don’t forget to logon to Santa’s progress throughout the night…live. It’s a blast, I promise you.
From all of us at Stinky Leaf, we want to wish you and your family a very Happy Stinky Holiday season!