Thursday, December 24, 2009

On the North Pole Runway... and Cleared For Takeoff!

... that would be Santa.  But wait!  Read this closely:

Not only does NORAD operate the finest tracking system in the world but recent upgrades apparently have given the system a capability of seeing about three hours into the future, if my back-o-the-hand calculations are accurate.  This enhanced performance capability should prove useful in other (i.e., military) applications, no doubt.

OK... that said... we'll be tracking Santa off and on throughout the day!

Update, 0400 hrs:  As predicted... Airborne!

5 comments:

  1. Back in 1968, I remember being extremely proud that the U.S. Air Force was keeping an eye on Santa's whereabouts and making sure he was kept safe while doing his good works. This was reported by the radio station (KSFO) playing the great Christmas music from San Francisco.

    I really believed it, too!

    Great memories.

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  2. Heh. I spent Christmas of 1968 at Wakkanai Air Force Station, Japan... tracking Santa when he flew over Northern Japan and Sakhalin, and making sure the Godless Commies didn't shoot the poor guy down.

    Elsewhere in these pages is a description of the fun we Airpeeps had in Operations at Lompoc AFS... a long range radar site and my first duty station ('64 - '67)... during Christmas. We had a video generator that we used for training and we rigged it up to display a sleigh and nine tiny reindeer superimposed on the raw video feeds from the search radar, which were displayed on our scopes in Ops. The little kids were VERY impressed. So were their parents, come to think on it...

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  3. I've always gotten a kick out of this. I remember watching it with my daughters when they were younger, and reveling at how excited they got.

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  4. True story. My oldest son was 13 years old (13, I kid you not), and came home from the 8th grade in mid December very upset. I asked him what was wrong.

    He had been picked on by several boys for much of the day over an argument about whether Santa was real or not. I knew this was going to be one of those "what the heck do I do?" moments. So, he asked me straight out. And, I answered him straight out.

    Then I asked him, "Dean, did you really still believe?" He answered, "Well, kids have been saying it's not real for years. But, I know that you and Mom don't have money for all the good presents we get at Christmas. After all this time, I just knew he had to be real." Aaaahhh...growing up is a b##ch!

    Merry Christmas to ya' Buck. Don't slip on the ice and break a hip or nothin'. We might have to shoot ya'.

    Your Louisiana friends (having a "Wet Christmas"), Andy & Pam Reeves

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  5. BR: me, too. In spades!

    Andy: Thanks for that story. You and Pam are truly blessed.

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