By Brad Aronson, author of HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act At a Time

The official Santa Tracker, which has delighted families around the world for seven decades, had its unlikely beginning when a child accidentally called the phone number of a top-secret Pentagon hotline responsible for informing the military of any attack on North America.

In December 1955, a year after President Eisenhower established the hotline, the red phone rang at the Continental Air Defense Command, now known as NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). The country was in the middle of the Cold War, tensions were high and the number was only for emergencies.

As the commanding officer, Col. Harry Shoup, responded, he heard a screeching voice asking, “Is that Santa Claus?”

Shoup thought it was a prank and responded accordingly until the boy started crying.

Shoup, a father of four, realized it wasn’t a joke, played Santa Claus and then spoke to the mother, who told him the number was in a Christmas ad for Sears department store. The number printed in the ad was one digit different from the number Sears wanted to print.

Who knows if Shoup saw the humor at the time, but the ad said, “Call me on my personal phone and I will speak to you personally at any time, day or night… Children, be sure to dial the right number.” .”

The children called constantly and Shoup sent two airmen to answer the phone as Santa Claus.

“It must have been a big joke in the command center,” said Shoup’s daughter, Terri Van Keuren. “You know, ‘The old man really turned his head this time. “We answer Santa’s calls.”

There was a huge board for tracking planes, and on Christmas Eve some employees set up a sleigh with reindeer on it. When Shoup saw it, they apologized and offered to remove it, but he thought the sled was great.

“And next thing you know, Dad called a radio station and said, ‘This is the commander of the Combat Alert Center, and we have an unidentified flying object.’ It looks like a sleigh.

The radio stations called him every hour and asked, “Where is Santa Claus now?”

Thus began NORAD’s Santa tracking tradition, which has grown annually for 69 years. They began on Christmas Eve by issuing a press release that appeared in media outlets across the country, announcing that they were tracking a red sleigh coming from the North Pole. In the 1960s, NORAD sent records to radio stations with recorded updates about Santa’s progress. In the 1970s they broadcast updates on television.

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Each year, more than 1,250 volunteers – both military and civilian – answered the flood of calls and emails to Santa Tracker from around the world. Volunteering has become a family tradition, sometimes involving three generations. Shoup’s daughter Terri is among them.

The Santa Tracking website is available in nine languages ​​and on Christmas Eve (December 24th) you can call NORAD directly at +1 (877) HI-NORAD for updates.

Really, in the 21st century there’s even a free app and families can use Amazon’s Alexa service to ask for updates.

Colonel Shoup, who died in 2009, served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War; He received a Soldier’s Medal for saving the life of another airman.

He also kept letters that children had sent him about Santa Claus in his locked briefcase – and his daughter thinks that may have been what he was most proud of.

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For more positivity, check out Brad Aronson’s book, HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act At a Time.