@Mark Ollig
This Christmas, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will once again track Santa Claus and his reindeer as they travel around the world.
This Christmas, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will once again track Santa Claus and his reindeer as they travel around the world.
First, a word about the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), NORAD’s predecessor.
In 1955, it was based at Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, CO.
CONAD coordinated the nation’s round-the-clock air defense against potential bomber threats during the Cold War, with its radar watching for Soviet bombers carrying nuclear bombs approaching over the North Pole.
Much of that radar data fed into the developing SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), the air defense system I wrote about in my March 28, 2024, column.
In 1955, the Soviet Union lacked the capability to launch nuclear missiles at the US.
However, the Soviet Union tested the R-7 Semyorka Aug. 21, 1957, their first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the continental United States.
But I digress.
CONAD’s job was to warn the US about possible Soviet bomber attacks so the Strategic Air Command could respond.
When an attack looked imminent, a top Pentagon official would call CONAD’s Combat Operations Center on the red hotline phone.
A Sears newspaper ad in the Dec. 24, 1955, Colorado Springs newspaper showed Santa saying, “Hey, Kiddies! Call me direct . . . Call me on my private phone, and I will talk to you personally any time, day or night,” and inviting children to “Call me direct on my Merry Xmas telephone at ME 2-6681.”
In 1955, rotary telephone dials in North America paired letters with numbers: two with ABC, three with DEF, four with GHI, five with JKL, six with MNO, seven with PRS, eight with TUV, and nine with WXY.
Zero was reserved for the operator, and the letters Q and Z did not appear on standard rotary dials.
Telephone exchanges used the first two letters of an exchange name to represent the first two digits of the local number.
This 2L-5N (two letters, five numbers) system, used across much of the US and Canada, converted those letters into the first two digits of a seven-digit local number.
In this case, M and E fell on the six and three keys.
As a result, “ME” mapped to 63, so ME 2-6681 was the same as dialing 632-6681 in Colorado Springs. At the time, Colorado Springs was in area code 303 – today it is 719.
The Santa telephone number in the Sears ad was off by a single digit, so it didn’t connect to the store’s Santa line.
Instead, it reached an unlisted line at CONAD’s command center, the red desk hotline reserved for urgent military calls.
That phone began to ring Dec. 24, 1955.
Colonel Harry W. Shoup, the operations director at CONAD, heard the red hotline phone ringing and assumed the call was from a high-ranking military officer.
He promptly lifted the receiver and answered smartly, “Colonel Shoup.”
There was no reply.
“Yes, sir, this is Colonel Shoup,” he said.
But there was only silence on the other end.
“Sir, can you read me?” Colonel Shoup asked.
He then heard what sounded like a young girl’s voice: “Is this Santa?”
The colonel paused, taken aback.
Thinking it was a prank, Col. Shoup asked, “Would you repeat that?”
“Is this Santa Claus?” asked the young girl.
Col. Shoup looked around the room and said, “Somebody’s playing a joke on me, and this isn’t funny!”
The staff at the command center were confused and did not know if the call was real or a prank.
Then someone explained to Col. Shoup that the caller was not a prankster, but a child who had dialed the Santa number from a Sears ad that had accidentally printed the CONAD hotline.
Col. Shoup, a father of four, paused, then cheerfully spoke to the little girl as Santa: “Have you been good this year?”
The girl’s mood lifted, and she excitedly shared what presents she hoped to get.
Col. Shoup then spoke with her mother and mentioned the gifts her daughter had asked for.
The red hotline phone kept ringing as more children called in, and Col. Shoup instructed his team to play Santa’s helpers whenever a young caller was on the line.
For a short time, the CONAD hotline became Santa’s hotline, with staff using data from their ground-based long-range search radar network to give children updates on Santa’s location in the sky.
Yes, the red phone saved Christmas for these young children.
Colonel Shoup recognized a public relations opportunity after seeing a doodle of a sleigh on the tracking board.
He then instructed his public relations officer to issue an official press release through military public affairs channels.
This press release stated that “CONAD, Army, Navy, and Marine Air Forces will continue to track and guard Santa and his sleigh.”
The Minneapolis Morning Tribune released an AP story Dec. 24, 1955, from Colorado Springs, reporting that CONAD’s combat operations center was tracking Santa’s journey from the North Pole.
The report stated that early radar and ground observers had detected Santa traveling at 45 knots and an altitude of 35,000 feet, anticipating his arrival in the US later that night for his annual visit.
The US and Canada established NORAD on May 12, 1958, replacing CONAD.
NORAD tracks Santa’s flight using radar, infrared satellites, and jet fighters, all coordinated through its command centers.
Since 1955, NORAD has tracked Santa’s journey, and this year marks the 70th anniversary of the tradition.
The official NORAD Tracks Santa website (www.noradsanta.org) features games, Santa’s Village, holiday music, and follows Santa’s travels on Dec. 24.
For updates on that day, call 1-877-HI-NORAD (1-877-446-6723).
Colonel Harry Shoup, known as the Santa Colonel, supported NORAD’s mission to bring Christmas joy to children around the world.
Harry Wesley Shoup died March 14, 2009, at 91, and is buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, CO.
Wishing a Merry Christmas to all my readers and to the folks who answered the red phone back on Dec. 24, 1955.
Image generated by Perplexity AI from the column's content. "Dec. 24, 1955: A little girl calling the Sears
Santa phone number and reaching the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) hotline, answered
by Col. Shoup." Perplexity AI created both images, which I combined and separated with a black vertical bar.
Per Perplexity AI: "Photo illustration: AI-generated images created with Perplexity AI and combined by the author."
