Norad's holiday heroes: How RAF and USAF personnel team up to help Santa at Christmas
Santa, the world's most famous aviator, doesn't take on the pressures of delivering millions of presents on Christmas Eve alone – he is supported by festive RAF and USAF personnel on the ground and in the air.
In North Yorkshire, personnel at RAF Fylingdales not only provide a continuous ballistic missile early warning service, but they also help the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) track Santa – becoming some of the first people to know when the big man is coming to town.
And keen to keep the magic of Christmas alive for children around the world, hundreds of military and civilian volunteers at Norad in Colorado answer calls from excited children keen to know where Santa is on Christmas Eve.
Generations of families since the tradition began in 1955 have volunteered to answer calls, much to the delight of military personnel who work there, such as 1st Lieutenant Sean Carter, Norad's Track Santa programme manager.
Speaking on BFBS podcast MavGeeks, of which there will be a new festive-themed episode this Christmas Eve, he said: "Our volunteers are critical and really are the heart and soul of the programme.
"The outpouring of support that these people just... I get a little choked up thinking about it because it really is amazing."
Watching, warning and responding
Based at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado, Norad defends North America 365 days a year using "an all-domain and globally integrated approach to track everything that flies in and around Canada and the United States".
Working with homeland defence, security and law enforcement partners, Norad's primary mission is to provide aerospace and maritime warnings while preventing air attacks against North America by safeguarding the airspaces of the US and Canada.
General Gregory M Guillot, Norad's commander, is accountable to both the US president and Canadian prime minister.
Vital to homeland defence, Norad is supported by three regional headquarters in Alaska, Manitoba (a province in Canada) and Florida and acts as a main centre for a global network of sensors.
Norad takes advantage of a combination of satellites, ground-based radar systems, airborne radar and fighter aircraft to identify, intercept and when needed, confront any aerial threats to Canada and the US.
However, on Christmas Eve they also take on another mission – tracking Santa.
And the people who work this mission take the joy the magic of Christmas brings to children very seriously.
Speaking on a special Christmas edition of BFBS podcast MavGeeks, Captain Alexandra Hejduk explains what Norad does, but adds a festive twist, saying: "Norad's main mission is the defence of North America and that encompasses aerospace control and warning and maritime warning.
"So we monitor the skies and we monitor the seas and it's a missile defence so if we see threats that are potentially coming from overseas or missile launches, we track those just to make sure that our airspace around the continent remains safe.
"And actually the missile defence piece kind of ties back into Rudolph for example, because that's how we track Santa Claus.
"The same heat signature that you get in the missile is the same heat signature that you get in Rudolph's nose and that's how we're able to track him around the world."
The magic of Christmas is very much kept alive both at Norad and RAF Fylingdales.
In 2021, Flight Lieutenant Rich Weeks, the media officer at RAF Fylingdales – the UK's Ballistic Missile Early Warning System and tracker of thousands of objects in space since 1963 – spoke about the site's involvement in tracking Santa on podcast MavGeeks.
He said: "Out of our two missions of tracking ballistic missiles and tracking objects in space, tracking Santa at Christmas is the most important job that we do.
"We speak to Norad all the time. We have these giant data transmission links that we send."
"We don't intercept Santa because, of course, he's very much friendly forces.
"He's got an awful lot of gifts for all the kids on the back of that sleigh.
"We don't want to tilt the sleigh or [have] things dropping off so we have to be very, very careful.
"He's incredibly fast, but he is magic, after all."
But why does Norad track Santa?
In December 1955, a series of events that sound like the beginning of a delightful Christmas film led to the tradition of Norad tracking Santa.
A local Sears catalogue had published an advert inviting children to call Santa Claus, but they had misprinted the telephone number by one digit which just happened to be an unlisted number and a direct line to the late Colonel Harry Shoup, the commanding officer on duty at Norad.
Known for being a stern, no-nonsense officer, Col Shoup spoke with a little girl who was very keen to speak to Santa.
In a move that eventually led to Shoup being nicknamed Santa Colonel, the senior officer pretended to be Santa and spoke to the girl, much to her delight.
Capt Hejduk said: "Colonel Shoup was touched by the light of Christmas and knew right away what had happened and started playing along and that's how the tradition was born.
"He directed all his colleagues the same.
"When the phone rang – and it rang off the hook, as I understand it – to pick up and play along with this kind of Santa piece."
This kind gesture led to a Norad tradition that millions of children around the world have enjoyed for nearly 70 years.
Don't miss this year's festive special episode of MavGeeks on BFBS Radio at 15:00 UK time on Christmas Eve or wherever you get your podcasts.
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