Tracking Santa With Military Tech
Dec. 24, 2004 — -- In this week's "Cybershake," we take a look at how the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a joint operation of the United States' and Canada's militaries, will help anxious kids track Santa's long-awaited Christmas Eve flight.
All Military Eyes on Santa
Santa Claus is known for keeping track of which boys and girls have been good or bad. But who keeps tabs on the jolly old elf himself -- especially when he makes his magical flight across the globe? None other than the men and women who make up the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
The joint American and Canadian military operation, better known as NORAD, normally watches the skies over North America for airborne threats. But NORAD official and Canadian army Maj. Douglas Martin says that same space-based surveillance technology will help kids track when Santa comes to their town.
"That same satellite system is used to detect and follow Rudolph's nose as he goes around the world with Santa," says Martin.
NORAD's Santa updates will also be beefed up with "live video sightings" from a number of "SantaCams" that have been deployed globally by the military organization. One such camera will be operated by former rocker Ringo Starr. As an "honorary Santa tracker," the ex-Beatle will provide progress reports as Santa makes his way through Great Britain.
Martin says NORAD will also personally welcome Santa with an escort of CF-18 fighter jets when he and his reindeer-powered sleigh cross into Canadian airspace.
"Our fighter pilots get a chance to go up in the sky and intercept Santa and fly with him for a while," says Martin. Escort duties will then pass off to American fighter pilots when Santa's sleigh crosses the border into the United States.
How It All Began
According to NORAD, the military first became involved with tracking St. Nick 49 years ago when a newspaper had misprinted the telephone number for a Christmas Eve Santa hot line. Instead of the sponsoring department store in Colorado Springs, however, children were reaching NORAD's director of operations also located in the Colorado town.
Since then, NORAD has tracked Santa every year, providing the information to radio and TV stations and now to the Web.
For this 50th season of Santa tracking, Martin says NORAD has pulled all the stops on its Web site. Santa updates will be available in six languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Japanese. The site also features "declassified" pictures of Santa, Christmas music and greetings from celebrities -- including one from ABCNEWS World News Tonight anchorman Peter Jennings.
NORAD reports there were more than 577 million hits on its Web page last Christmas Eve. Martin says the military has doubled the number of computers to handle Christmas Eve Web traffic -- expected to reach about a billion hits -- this year.
To track Santa, kids of all ages can direct their Web browser to NORAD's site: www.NORADSanta.org. Members of AOL can simply enter keyword "Santa." Those without Internet access can call NORAD's toll-free Santa hotline: 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723)
Cybershake is produced for ABC News Radio by Andrea J. Smith.