{"id":96525,"date":"2018-12-24T16:40:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T23:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/santa-tracker-will-still-run-despite-government-shutdown\/"},"modified":"2018-12-24T16:40:04","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T23:40:04","slug":"santa-tracker-will-still-run-despite-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/santa-tracker-will-still-run-despite-government-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa tracker will still run despite government shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Canadian
Canadian Lt. Maj. Chris Hache takes a call while volunteering at the NORAD Tracks Santa center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Hundreds of volunteers will help answer the phones again when the program resumes on Monday, Dec. 24, 2018, for the 63rd year. Children from around the world call to ask when Santa Claus will get to their house.<\/span>Jerilee Bennett\/The Gazette via AP file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The military says the NORAD Tracks Santa program won\u2019t be affected by the government shutdown because it is run by volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado and is funded by the Department of Defense\u2019s budget that was approved earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Now in its 63rd year, the Santa tracker became a Christmas Eve tradition after a mistaken phone call to the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs in 1955. CONAD, as it was known, had the serious job of monitoring a far-flung radar network for any sign of a nuclear attack on the United States.<\/p>\n

When Col. Harry Shoup picked up the phone that day, he found himself talking not to a military general, but to a child who wanted to speak to Santa Claus. A Colorado Springs newspaper had run an ad inviting kids to call Santa but mistakenly listed the hotline number.<\/p>\n

Shoup figured out what had happened and played along. The tradition has since mushroomed into an elaborate operation that attracts tens of thousands of calls every year.<\/p>\n

For the 1,500 civilian and military volunteers who will answer the phones for kids calling 1-877-HI-NORAD, it infuses the holiday with childlike wonder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all really sweet, small voices,\u201d said Madison Hill, a volunteer who helped answer the phones in two previous years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a little girl tell me good night instead of goodbye,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The North American Aerospace Defense Command \u2013 a joint U.S.-Canadian operation based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that protects the skies over both countries \u2013 has taken over the Santa tracker since the tradition started. The military command center embraced and expanded the Santa-tracking mission and has been rewarded with a bounty of goodwill and good publicity.<\/p>\n

Last year, NORAD Tracks Santa drew 126,000 phone calls, 18 million website hits, 1.8 million followers on Facebook and 179,000 more on Twitter.<\/p>\n

It takes 160 phones to handle the calls that pour in. New volunteers get a playbook that briefs them on the questions kids might ask. Big screens on the walls show a Santa icon making blistering progress around the globe. U.S. and Canadian officers do live TV interviews from the phone rooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really gets you into the Christmas spirit,\u201d said Hill, a student at Mississippi State University who got involved through Air Force family members stationed in Colorado Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are Christmas carols in the background, everyone\u2019s very friendly, happy to be there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One year, she took a call from a boy who began reading a very long Christmas list. \u201cI remember having to cut him off after the 10th present or so,\u201d she said, explaining to him that she had to take calls from other children.<\/p>\n

A girl told Hill she wanted to warn Santa not to bump into a bell hanging on her door. \u201cI think she wanted Santa to be quiet and not wake her up,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the volunteers have to handle the unexpected. In 2012, a child from Newtown, Connecticut, asked if Santa could bring extra toys for families who lost children in the mass shooting that year at Sandy Hook Elementary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can get ahold of him, I\u2019ll try to get the message to him,\u201d replied the volunteer, Sara Berghoff.<\/p>\n

NORAD\u2019s commander, Air Force Gen. Terrence J. O\u2019Shaughnessy, will also take a turn answering the phones Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my first NORAD Tracks Santa,\u201d said O\u2019Shaughnessy, who took command in May. \u201cI\u2019m really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shaughnessy was even asked about the program during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in April to confirm him as NORAD chief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI assume this committee can count on your commitment to continue that venerable tradition,\u201d Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton deadpanned.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes sir, especially since my son Sam would want to see that as well,\u201d O\u2019Shaughnessy replied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian Lt. Maj. Chris Hache takes a call while volunteering at the NORAD Tracks Santa center at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Hundreds of volunteers will help answer the phones again when the program resumes on Monday, Dec. 24, 2018, for the 63rd year. Children from around the world call to ask when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[755,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-96525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-christmas","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96525"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=96525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}