Why did NORAD start tracking Santa? Since the tradition started in the Fifties, one might suspect that the big man’s red suit attracted the attention of anti-communist zealot Joe McCarthy. Or maybe Ike thought Santa was the beginning of an alien invasion. Or was it a typo? the good folks over at Mental Floss explain that On December 24, 1955, the red telephone at the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center began to ring.
The article says the red phone meant it was either the Pentagon or CONAD commander-in-chief General Earle Partridge on the other end, and their reason for calling would probably not be pleasant. U.S. Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, director of operations at the center, rushed over to the phone and grabbed it.
“Yes, Sir, this is Colonel Shoup,” he barked.
Nothing but silence in response.
“Sir? This is Colonel Shoup,” he said.
Silence again.
“Sir? Can you read me alright?”
Finally, a soft voice on the other end.
“Are you really Santa Claus?” a little girl asked.
The Colonel told the author he was stunned for a second. He thought this was a joke. He looked around the room, expecting to see his men laughing at their prank, but found stony, serious faces all around.
He realized that there was “some screw-up on the phones,” and decided to play along.
“Yes, I am,” he answered. “Have you been a good little girl?”
The girl explained to Col. Shoup that she would leave some food out for both Santa and his reindeer and then recited her Christmas list to him. The Colonel thanked her for her hospitality, noting that Santa had a lot of traveling to do. How did he get to all those houses in one night, anyway, she asked.
Apparently, that was classified intelligence in Col. Shoup’s mind. “That’s the magic of Christmas,” he said. If anyone asks her about that, he said, she should tell them to stop asking so many questions or Santa would put them on the naughty list.
“That red phone, boy,” Col. Shoup later recalled to Mental Floss. “That’s either the old man—the four-star [General Partridge]—or the Pentagon. I was all shook up.”
The red phone would keep ringing throughout the night. Not because of Soviet nukes or fighter planes heading toward U.S. soil, but because of a typo.
That day, Colonel Shoup would later learn, a local newspaper ran a Sears Roebuck ad inviting kids to contact Santa.
“Hey Kiddies!” the ad read. “Call me on my private phone and I will talk to you personally any time day or night.” The ad listed Santa’s direct line, but the number in the copy was off by a digit. Instead of connecting to the special line Sears set up with a Santa impersonator, kids wound up calling a secret air defense emergency number.
After a few more Santa-related calls, Colonel Shoup pulled a few airmen aside and gave them a special assignment. They would answer the phone and give callers—barring the Pentagon, we assume—Santa’s current location as they “tracked” him on their radar.
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And that is why NORAD tracks Santa. – Merry Christmas!
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
