NORAD Tracks Santa

The emblem of NORAD Tracks Santa,.

NORAD Tracks Santa is an annual Christmas-themed entertainment program produced under the auspices of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Every year on Christmas Eve, "NORAD Tracks Santa" purports to follow Santa Claus as he leaves the North Pole and delivers presents to children around the world. The program starts on December 1 with a "Countdown Village" website.

The program is in the tradition of the September 1897 editorial "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" in the New York Sun.

History and overview

1955 Sears ad with the misprinted telephone number that led to
 the NORAD Tracks Santa Program

According to NORAD's official web page on the NORAD Tracks Santa program, the service began on December 24, 1955. A Sears department store placed an advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper. The advertisement told children that they could telephone Santa Claus and included a number for them to call. However, the telephone number printed was incorrect and calls instead came through to Colorado Spring's Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center. Colonel Shoup, who was on duty that night, told his staff to give all children that called in a "current location" for Santa Claus. A tradition began which continued when the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) replaced CONAD in 1958.

NORAD relies on volunteers to make the program possible. Many volunteers are employees at Cheyenne Mountain and Peterson Air Force Base. Each volunteer handles about forty telephone calls per hour, and the team typically handles more than 12,000 e-mails and more than 70,000 telephone calls from more than two hundred countries and territories. Most of these contacts happen during the twenty-five hours from 2 a.m. on December 24 until 3 a.m. MST on December 25. Google Analytics has been in use since December 2007 to analyze traffic at the NORAD Tracks Santa website. As a result of this analysis information, the program can project and scale volunteer staffing, telephone equipment, and computer equipment needs for Christmas Eve.

By December 25, 2009, the NORAD Tracks Santa program had 27,440 twitter followers and the Facebook page had more than 410,700 fans.

Website and other media

This publicity picture for NORAD Tracks Santa shows two Northeastern Air Defense Sector
members with radarequipment in December 2008,.

The NORAD Tracks Santa program has always made use of a variety of media. From the 1950s to 1996, these were the telephone hotline, newspapers, radio, phonograph records and television. Many television newscasts in North America feature NORAD Tracks Santa as part of their weather updates on Christmas Eve.

From 1997 to the present, the program has had a highly publicized internet presence. As mobile media and social media have become popular and widespread as methods of direct communication, these newer media have also been embraced by the program.The layout of the NORAD Tracks Santa website and its webpages have changed from 1997 to the present due to changes in internet technologies, and changes in partners and sponsors for a particular year.

From mid-January until November 30, when one arrives at the NORAD Tracks Santa website, one is greeted with a message to come back on 1 December to "track Santa with NORAD". During December one finds a NORAD Tracks Santa website with all the features available.

On Christmas Eve, the NORAD Tracks Santa website videos page is generally updated each hour, when it is midnight in a different time zone. The "Santa Cam" videos show CGI images of Santa Claus flying over famous landmarks. Each video is accompanied by a voice-over, typically done by NORAD personnel, giving a few facts about the city or country depicted.[8] Celebrity voice-overs have also been used over the years. For the London "Santa Cam" video, English television personality and celebrity Jonathan Ross did the voice-over for 2005 to 2007 and the former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr narrated the same video in 2003 and 2004. In 2002, Aaron Carter provided the voice-over for three videos.

The locations and landmarks depicted in some of the "Santa Cam" videos have changed over the years. In 2009, twenty-nine "Santa Cam" videos were posted on the website. In previous years, twenty-four to twenty-six videos had been posted.

Sponsorship and publicity

This publicity picture shows two members of Canadian
 Forces with radar screens.

NORAD Tracks Santa relies on corporate sponsorship, and is not financed by American and Canadian taxpayers.

U.S. military units that have provided publicity for the program include the Northeast Air Defense Sector of the New York Air National Guard and the U.S. Naval Reserve Navy Information Bureau (NIB) 1118 at Fort Carson, Colorado. Other U.S. federal agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have also publicized the service, as have the Canadian Forces.

(source:wikipedia)

North American Aerospace Defense Command

North American Aerospace Defense Command
Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States
NORAD emblem
Type	Aerospace warning and aerospace control
Coordinates	38.744331°N 104.84668°W
Built	1961 (Directorate)
In use	1958 - present
Current owner	Canada / United States
Controlled by	Joint operations of Canadian Forces Air Command and United States Air Force and co-location with USNORTHCOM
Garrison	Headquarters:Peterson Air Force Base Directorate: Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station (west of Colorado Springs, CO)
Commanders	Admiral James A. Winnefeld, Jr., USN
Events	May 2006 NORAD Agreement Renewal

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD, pronounced /ˈnɒræd/ NORR-ad) is a joint organization of Canada and the United States that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and defense for the two countries. It was founded on May 12, 1958 (an effect of the Cold War) as a joint command between the governments of Canada and the United States, as the North American Air Defense Command. Its main technical facility has been the Cheyenne Mountain Directorate, formerly Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, of the Cheyenne Mtn. Air Force Station, Colorado; and for this reason NORAD is sometimes referred to as Cheyenne Mountain. Similar to the Cheyenne Mountain Directorate, but on a smaller scale, the Canada East and Canada West Sector Air Operations Control Centres were located in an underground complex 600 feet below the surface at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) North Bay in Ontario, Canada. On October 12, 2006, NORAD operations at CFB North Bay have officially moved above ground into the newly-constructed Sergeant David L. Pitcher Building, and the underground complex has been "mothballed" but can be returned to operation if it should be needed again.

NORAD's headquarters facilities in Colorado are administered by the U.S. Air Force under the command of the 721st Mission Support Group, part of the 21st Space Wing, headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base. NORAD's forces consist of the Alaskan NORAD Region/Eleventh Air Force, Canadian NORAD Region, and Continental NORAD Region.

History

Formation

NORAD Headquarters Building,

The growing perception of the threat of long-range Soviet strategic bombers armed with nuclear weapons brought the U.S. and Canada into closer cooperation for air defense. While attacks from the Pacific or Atlantic would have been detected by Airborne Early Warning aircraft, Navy ships, or offshore radar platforms, the Arctic was underprotected. In the early 1950s the U.S. and Canada agreed to construct a series of radar stations across North America to detect a Soviet attack over the Arctic. The first series of radars was the Pinetree Line, completed in 1954 and consisting of 33 stations across southern Canada. However, technical defects in the system led to more radar networks being built. In 1957, the McGill Fence was completed; it consisted of Doppler radar for the detection of low-flying craft. This system was roughly 300 miles (480 km) north of the Pinetree Line along the 55th parallel north. The third joint system was the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line), also completed in 1957. This was a network of 58 stations along the 69th parallel north. The systems gave around three hours' warning of a bomber attack before they could reach any major population center.

The command and control of the massive system then became a significant challenge. Discussions and studies of joint systems had been ongoing since the early 1950s and culminated on August 1, 1957, with the announcement by the U.S. and Canada to establish an integrated command, the North American Air Defense Command. On September 12, operations commenced in Colorado. A formal NORAD agreement between the two governments was signed on May 12, 1958.

On June 16, 1961, the official groundbreaking ceremony was held at the construction site of the NORAD Combat Operations Center (COC). Gen. Laurence S. Kuter, NORAD Commander, and Lt. Gen. Robert Merrill Lee, ADC Commander, simultaneously set off symbolic dynamite charges.

Cold War and false alarms

NORAD blast doors, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado,

By the early 1960s, about 250,000 personnel were involved in the operation of NORAD. The emergence of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) threat in the early 1960s was something of a blow. In response, a space surveillance and missile warning system was constructed to provide worldwide space detection, tracking and identification. The extension of NORAD's mission into space led to a name change, the North American Aerospace Defense Command in March 1981.

From 1963, the size of the U.S. Air Force was reduced, and obsolete sections of the radar system were shut down. However, there was increased effort to protect against an ICBM attack; two underground operations centers were set up, the main one inside Cheyenne Mountain and an alternate at North Bay, Ontario. By the early 1970s, the acceptance of mutual assured destruction doctrine led to a cut in the air defense budget and the repositioning of NORAD's mission to ensuring the integrity of airspace during peacetime. There followed significant reductions in the air defense system until the 1980s, when, following the 1979 Joint US-Canada Air Defense Study (JUSCADS) the need for the modernization of air defenses was accepted—the DEW Line was to be replaced with an improved Arctic radar line called the North Warning System (NWS); there was to be the deployment of Over-the-Horizon Backscatter (OTH-B) radar; the assignment of more advanced fighters to NORAD, and the greater use of Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma or Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska. These recommendations were accepted by the governments in 1985. The United States Space Command was formed in September 1985 as an adjunct but not a component of NORAD.

Even though all equipment in Cheyenne Mountain was put through a rigorous inspection, on at least three occasions, failure in its systems could have potentially caused nuclear war. On November 9, 1979, a technician in NORAD loaded a test tape but failed to switch the system status to "test", causing a stream of constant false warnings to spread to two "continuity of government" bunkers as well as command posts worldwide. On June 3, 1980, and again on June 6, 1980, a computer communications device failure caused warning messages to sporadically flash in U.S. Air Force command posts around the world that a nuclear attack was taking place. During these incidents, Pacific Air Forces properly had their planes (loaded with nuclear bombs) in the air; Strategic Air Command did not and took criticism because they did not follow procedure, even though the SAC command knew these were almost certainly false alarms (as did PACAF). Both command posts had recently begun receiving and processing direct reports from the various radar, satellite, and other missile attack detection systems, and those direct reports simply didn't match anything about the erroneous data received from NORAD.

Post-Cold War

An F-22 Raptor escorting Tu-95 Bear,.

At the end of the Cold War NORAD reassessed its mission. To avoid cutbacks, from 1989 NORAD operations expanded to cover counter-drug operations, especially the tracking of small aircraft entering and operating within America and Canada (although commercial flights were not perceived to be threats). But the DEW line sites were still replaced, in a scaled-back fashion by the North Warning System radars between 1986 and 1995. The Cheyenne Mountain site was also upgraded. However, none of the proposed OTH-B radars are currently in operation.

Post-September 11, 2001 attacks

Command center of NORAD,

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the NORAD mission evolved to include monitoring of all aircraft flying in the interior of the United States. NORAD oversees Operation Noble Eagle using fighter aircraft Combat Air Patrols (CAP) under command of First Air Force and Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) E-3 Sentry aircraft under command of the 552nd Air Control Wing. At U.S. request, NATO deployed five of its NATO AWACS aircraft to the U.S. to help NORAD in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

On July 28, 2006, military officials announced that NORAD's day-to-day operations would be consolidated, for purposes of efficiency, in an ordinary building at Peterson Air Force Base in nearby Colorado Springs. The mountain will be kept only as a backup in "warm standby," though fully operational and staffed with support personnel should the need arise. NORAD officials stated that the same surveillance work can be continued without the security the facility provides. They emphasized that they are no longer concerned about a halt to their operations from an intercontinental nuclear attack.

NORAD commander Admiral James A. Winnefeld, Jr. said in 2010 that NORAD did not send interceptors to intercept every flight of Russian bombers near U.S. airspace because NORAD did not wish to feed Russia's propaganda about their illusion of power.

Commanders and deputy commanders

The Commander of NORAD is always an United States Defense Department Officer confirmed by the US Senate and from 2002 has simultaneously headed USNORTHCOM, while the Deputy Commander is always Canadian. During the course of NORAD's history there have been four different U.S. combatant commands associated with NORAD:

Name of Command	Abbreviation	Emblem	Association started	Association ended	Type of combatant command	Notes
Continental Air Defense Command	CONAD		September 15, 1957	June 30, 1975	joint command 1954-1958 unified command 1958-1975	created on September 1, 1954; functions assumed by Aerospace Defense Command
Aerospace Defense Command	ADCOM		July 1, 1975	December 19, 1986	specified command	functions assumed by United States Space Command
United States Space Command	USSPACECOM		September 23, 1985	October 1, 2002	unified command	merged with United States Strategic Command
United States Northern Command	USNORTHCOM		October 1, 2002	continuing	unified command

Commanders

The NORAD commander is an American four-star General, or equivalent. Since 2004 commanders have included Admirals.

NORAD Commanders

Number	Name	Photo	Start of term	End of term	Notable positions held before or after
1	General Earle E. Partridge, USAF		1957	1959
2	General Laurence S. Kuter, USAF		1959	1962
3	General John K. Gerhart, USAF		1962
4	General Dean C. Strother, USAF		1965	1966	U.S. Military Representative, NATO Military Committee, 1962–1965
5	General Raymond J. Reeves, USAF		1966	1969
6	General Seth J. McKee, USAF		1969	1973
7	General Lucius D. Clay, Jr., USAF		1973	1975
8	General Daniel James, Jr., USAF		1975	1977
9	General James E. Hill, USAF		1977	1979
10	General James V. Hartinger, USAF		1980	1984
11	General Robert T. Herres, USAF		1984	1987	1st Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1987–1990)
12	General John L. Piotrowski, USAF		1987	1990	22nd Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force (1985–1987)
13	General Donald J. Kutyna, USAF		1990	1992	Member of the Rogers Commission (1986–1988)
14	General Charles A. "Chuck" Horner, USAF		June, 1992	September, 1994	Commander, 9th Air Force, and Commander, U.S. Central Command Air Forces (1987–1992), he led U.S. and allied air operations for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
15	General Joseph W. Ashy, USAF		September, 1994	August, 1996
16	General Howell M. Estes III, USAF		August, 1996	August 14, 1998
17	General Richard B. Myers, USAF		August 14, 1998	February 22, 2000	5th Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2000–2001) 15th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2001–2005)
18	General Ralph E. "Ed" Eberhart, USAF		February 22, 2000	November 5, 2004	27th Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force (1997–1999)
19	Admiral Timothy J. Keating, USN		November 5, 2004	March 23, 2007	Director of the Joint Staff (2003–2004) Commander, U.S. Pacific Command (2007–2009)
20	General Victor E. Renuart Jr., USAF		March 23, 2007	May 19, 2010	Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (2006–2007)
21	Admiral James A. Winnefeld, Jr., USN		May 19, 2010	Incumbent	Director for Strategic Plans and Policy, The Joint Staff which he concurrently served as the Senior Member, U.S. Delegation to the U.N. Military Staff Committee (2008–2010)

Deputy commanders

In recent years deputy commanders have always been Canadian air force three-star generals. Prior to the 1968 unification of the Canadian Forces, the deputy commanders were RCAF Air Marshals.

NORAD Deputy Commanders

Number	Name	Photo	Start of term	End of term	Notable positions held before or after
1	Air Marshal Roy Slemon, CB,CBE, CD, RCAF		September 1957	August 1964	Chief of the Air Staff (1953–1957)
2	Air Marshal Clarence Rupert Dunlap, CBE, CD, RCAF		August 1964	August 1967	Deputy Chief of Staff (Operations) at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (1958-1962), Chief of the Air Staff (1962–1964)
3	Air Marshal William R. MacBrien OBE, CD, RCAF		August 1967	January 1969
4	Lieutenant-General Frederick Ralph Sharp CMM, DFC, CD		January 1969	September 1969	Chief of the Defence Staff (1969–1972)
5	Lieutenant-General Edwin Reyno,CF		September 1969	August 1972	Chief of Personnel of the Canadian Forces (1966-1969)
6	Lieutenant-General Reginald J. Lane, DSO, DFC and Bar, CD,LoM (USA)		September 1972	October 1974	Deputy Commander of Mobile Command (1969-1972)
7	Lieutenant-General Richard C . Stovel, AFC, CD, LoM (USA)		October 1974	September 1976
8	Lieutenant-General David R. Adamson		September 1976	August 1978
9	Lieutenant-General Kenneth E. Lewis		1978	1980
10	Unknown		June 1980	May 1983
11	Lieutenant-General Donald C. MacKenzie, CF		May 1983	August 1986
12	Unknown		August 1986	August 1989
13	Lieutenant-General Robert W. Morton, CMM, CD, BSc (RMC)		August 1989	August 1992
14	Lieutenant-General Brian L. Smith		August 1992	August 1994
15	Lieutenant-General J. D. O'Blenis,CF		August 1994	August 1995
16	Lieutenant-General L. W. F. Cuppens, CF		August 1995	April 1998
17	Lieutenant-General G C Macdonald, CF		April 1998	August 2001
18	Lieutenant-General Ken R. Pennie,CF		August 8, 2001	July 14, 2003
19	Lieutenant-General Rick Findley CF		July 14, 2003	August 2, 2007	Chief of Staff for Personnel, Training, and Reserves; Chief of Staff for Operations at 1 Canadian Air Division; Director of Combat Operations at NORAD
20	Lieutenant-General Charlie Bouchard CF		August 2, 2007	July 10, 2009	Deputy Commander for Continental NORAD Region
21	Lieutenant-General Marcel Duval CF		July 10, 2009	present	Canadian Contingent Commander Middle East; Commander of 1 Wing

Notable popular culture

NORAD comes to the public's attention during December and on Christmas Eve, when its NORAD Tracks Santa service follows Santa Claus on his journey around the world. This tradition started in 1955 when a local Sears store in Colorado misprinted the telephone number and children thought they were calling Santa, but actually were calling Air Defense Command (NORAD's predecessor) instead.

Cheyenne Mountain was the central setting of the 1983 motion picture WarGames, starring Matthew Broderick as a teenager who hacked NORAD's main computer and almost started a global thermonuclear war.

Cheyenne Mountain is also the main earth setting of the Stargate universe, serving as the Command Center for all Stargate Operations in the Milky Way Galaxy.

(source:wikpedia)