NORAD Tracking Santa
Monday, December 24, 2012 @ 12:00 PM
Prince George, B.C.- We are just hours away from Santa’s annual big ride reaching Canada and the North American Defense Command ( NORAD) is ready to track and escort Santa on this visit.
As Santa makes his way across Canada, he will be escorted by four CF-18 pilots.
Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel McLeod, Captain Shamus Allen, Major Benoit Bouchard, and Captain Vincent Landry have the honour of escorting Santa through Canadian air space.
Major Bouchard, and Captain Landry of the 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron, 3 Wing, Bagotville, Quebec, will conduct the first escort duties to welcome Santa into Canada. At the east-west centre-point of Canada, near the Ontario-Manitoba border, escort duties will switch over to Lieutenant-Colonel McLeod and Captain Allen of 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron, 4 Wing, Cold Lake, Alberta, as Santa makes his way into Western Canada.
As has been done in the past, special NORAD SantaCams, positioned around the world, will take photos and video of Santa and his sleigh as he makes his journey . The SantaCams instantly download the photo and video imagery so that it may be viewed by children worldwide on the NORAD Tracks Santa website. There are some great activities on the site to keep little ones busy as the SantaCams report the big guy’s whereabouts.
As it has done since 1955, the Canadian Air Defence Sector Operations Centre at 22 Wing in North Bay, Ontario, will alert NORAD when their radar and satellite systems detect Santa approaching North America.
Children can also receive updates on Santa’s Christmas Eve journey by calling the traditional "NORAD Tracks Santa" telephone hotline at 1-877-HI NORAD (1-877-446-6723), or by emailing NORAD at noradtrackssanta@gmail.com.
Last year, the NORAD Tracks Santa website received over 18.9 million unique visitors from 220 countries and territories around the world. NORAD Tracks Santa Facebook page had nearly 1 million followers, and more than 101,000 people followed Santa on Twitter. On Christmas Eve alone, NORAD "Santa Trackers" answered more than 102,000 telephone calls and answered 7,721 emails over a 25 hour period.
Comments
Norad tracking Santa?? Are the people who print this and carry on with it year after year, in their right mind?? Do you not know that Santa is as fictional as the tooth fairy? As Joan Rivers would say: grow up!!! Stop teaching your children this bunk.
Humans of all ages are informed daily about a range of concepts. For thousands of years those concepts have included those we appear to be able to observe and, from personal observations, we determine whether to classify them as real or as imagined. Many of those concepts taken in by our cognitive function fall under categories such as myth, folklore, legend, fantasy, belief, tradition, theory, fact, truth, reality and so on.
Todayâs North Americaâs Santa Claus evolved from the reality of Nicholas who lived from 270AD to 346AD, his eventual recognition as Saint Nicholas due to his legendary generosity of giving, and such subsequent variations as the Dutch Sinterklaas. That name eventually transformed itself to Santa Claus in the USA initiated by the writings of Washington Irving.
From his 1809 book âKnickerbocker’s History of New Yorkâ come these words ââ¦â¦ so we are told, in the sylvan days of New Amsterdam, the good St. Nicholas would often make his appearance in his beloved city, of a holiday afternoon, riding jollily among the treetops, or over the roofs of houses, now and then drawing forth magnificent presents from his breeches pockets, and dropping them down the chimneys of his favorites.â
The e-book can be downloaded here http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13042/13042-h/13042-h.htm
We are humans. We have a vivid imagination and a large part of our lives are spent using that imagination.
Perhaps we need to get rid of the legend of Santa Claus and dwell on the fact of Jesus being born through an immaculate conception to save the world by dying on a cross and resurrecting from his grave three days later. After all, that is what every Christian child grows up knowing to be the factual truth.
And let us not forget that all those on this earth who do not think that is the factual truth are heathens and will end up in hell. Hell, of course, not being an imagined place or state, but a real place.
So, exactly what is it that is bunk?
;-)
Maybe Santa should invest in a new stealth sleigh and thwart NORAD’s spying on him.
Think I’d rather believe in Santa, he’s good to kids.
How many children’s lives have been destroyed in the name of religion?
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