if your old you remember norad tracking santa's route!!

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 1:18 am

ok.... all of you oldy, semi - moldy, middle aged ex snot nosed brats from the 60's & 70's........ who remembers your local news & sometimes national news tracking santa's flight path to deliver toys to all the future baby boomers via norad?? santa had security clearance!! i think it's a hoot that norad's name was even incorporated at a time of big cold war paranoia. try that stunt today!! it was fun to watch on the news back then, but most certainly politcally incorrect now!! today he'd be cavity searched!! we all must have rested easy of fantasies of warbirds dancing in our heads with norad on the job!!!! dang !!! the santa smilie won't work!! of all days for it to take a crap!!

JOHN MILLER · **Posted:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 2:31 am

Still doing it.
noradsanta.org

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:29 am

That's one of my favorite memories of growing up. I can't begin to guess what year I first started really paying attention to the NORAD reporting, but it was the very early '60s, and I seem to remember that they showed footage of F-100s etc. scrambling to escort Santa and the reindeer. Mom and Dad would even let me stay up past the 10:00 PM newscast because the NORAD tracking "radar" would give a progress report at 10:30.

Thanks for bringing up a good memory, Tom, and Happy Holidays!
Scott

Airplanejunkie · **Posted:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:43 am

Now: "There's an app for that."

Truly!

Best Holiday wishes to all!

Steve

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:43 am

That thing has to be lying - because I saw that thing get shot down by a trigger-happy shotgun-armed farmer out here. :wink:

Ryan

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 10:33 am

wow, i had no idea that they still did this!!! when i think back now that they did it on tv made it somewhat important, now that it's on the internet & you just click on it it's kind of mundane & boring.

Airplanejunkie · **Posted:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 10:41 am

tom d. friedman wrote:

wow, i had no idea that they still did this!!! when i think back now that they did it on tv made it somewhat important, now that it's on the internet & you just click on it it's kind of mundane & boring.

True, although I think it would have been fun to look at some of this stuff on the internet with the kids when they were little! Some of it is pretty well done and fun.

Best for the Holidays,

Steve

K5DH · **Posted:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 4:12 pm

Ah, yes! I remember watching the NORAD updates on Santa's progress on our old Philco TV in glorious black and white! The tradition "sorta" continues. Our local CBS affiliate showed video from inside NORAD last night, with the radar operators' uniforms accessorized with Christmas-y adornments and the room all festively decorated.

I wonder how many of today's kids even know what NORAD is, and why it was so important to their grandparents?

Dave Smith · **Posted:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 5:38 pm

Back in the 1950s, a detachment of the USAF's 53rd Weather Recon Sqdn was based at Burtonwood in NW England. Every morning a WB-50 would make a long range flight gathering info. Kids in the local schools would write letters to Santa and on Christmas Eve a WB-50 would drop them over the North Pole during its trip. Not sure that they really went that far but it was certainly north of the Arctic Circle!

Taigh Ramey · **Posted:** Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:58 pm

tom d. friedman wrote:

wow, i had no idea that they still did this!!! when i think back now that they did it on tv made it somewhat important, now that it's on the internet & you just click on it it's kind of mundane & boring.

Anything but mundane and boring for my youngest daughter. Last night we were watching Polar Express and she was getting up every 15 minutes to check the NORAD site for a SITREP on Santa. When Santa got to Salt Lake City she bolted for bed as he was getting close! I love it

She put a note on he fireplace hearth to warn Santa not to bump his head on our TV which was mounted over the fireplace which was new since last year. Still such innocence and she is 15. Hold on to it as long as possible!

Merry Christmas all,

Taigh

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