ARPC officer tracks Santa's trek

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DENVER --  Many people spend Christmas Eve doing last-minute shopping, wrapping gifts or preparing for Christmas Day festivities. For those eagerly anticipating Santa's arrival, the Air Reserve Personnel Center's Maj. Doreen Bronner will have one of the most important tasks of all on Christmas Eve. 

Major Bronner, a force support assignment facilitator in ARPC's directorate of assignments, will be one of more than 1,000 volunteers at the North American Aerospace Defense Command's Santa tracking operations center this year. 

"It's very heartwarming to know that you're making Christmas that much more pleasant for the kids who call," she said. "You can hear the excitement in their voices." 

Volunteers will cycle through the center answering phone calls and e-mails from children around the world looking to get a fix on Santa Claus' whereabouts. The volunteers who staffed the center last Christmas Eve answered nearly 95,000 phone calls and received 140,000 e-mails from families around the world, officials said. 

"Once things get going you're picking up that phone all the time," Major Bronner said. "You are on the phone constantly." 

This will be Major Bronner's fourth year as a volunteer Santa tracker. 

The toll free number to the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center is 1-877Hi-NORAD (1-877 446-6723) for children to call and personally speak to a Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve. In addition, children can send an email to noradtrackssanta@gmail.com. 

The "NORAD Tracks Santa" program dates back to 1955, when an errant Christmas Eve phone call reached what was then the Continental Air Defense Command operations center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The call came from a local youngster who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a local newspaper ad and wanted to know where Santa was. 

The commander who answered the phone gave the child the information he wanted, starting an annual tradition that NORAD assumed when it formed in 1958. This year marks NORAD's 50th anniversary of tracking Santa as he travels the world delivering gifts.

The program has grown significantly, particularly since it was first presented on the Internet in 1998. The NORAD Tracks Santa Web site, www.noradsanta.org, registered 10.6 million visitors last year from 212 countries and territories, officials said.

This year, NORAD will begin tracking Santa's journey Dec. 24 via live video feeds on the Web site. The site also features fun holiday games and activities that change daily. 

(Courtesy North American Aerospace Defense Command and American Forces Press Service)