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When the red telephone began to ring, Col. Harry Shoup feared the worst. It was 1955, at the height of the Cold War, and Shoup was in the operations center of the Continental Air Defense Command in…, Main Topics, Drew F. Lawrence tells the story of the Santa Colonel, a Cold War scare and a kid calling in to one of the most important phones in military history. Thomas Novelly, Military.com’s Space & Air…, Additional Resources, Tracking Santa: Why A Whimsical Tradition Means So Much to Service Members Norad Santa Tracker To find out where Santa is, call +1 (877) HI-NORAD, Listen, rate, and subscribe!, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Transcript:, SPEAKERS, Zachary Fryer-Biggs, Gen. (Ret.) Martin Dempsey, Gen. (Ret.) Gene Renuart, Capt. Alexandra Hejduk, Preston Schlachter, Drew Lawrence, Cade, Thomas Novelly, NORAD Capt., Amy Bushatz, Drew Lawrence, When the red telephone began to ring, Col. Harry Shoup feared the worst. It was 1955, at the height of the Cold War, and Shoup was in the operations center of the Continental Air Defense Command in…, Gen. (Ret.) Gene Renuart, Can I help you, sir? Hello? Can you read me alright? This is Col. Shoup., Cade, Are you really Santa Claus?, Gen. (Ret.) Gene Renuart, What? Is this a joke? Just what do you think you're--, Drew Lawrence, The quick-witted officer realized that it was no joke, but a mistake. And a good-hearted child on the other end of one of the most important telephones in history thought he was calling Santa. So, to…, Gen. (Ret.) Gene Renuart, Of course I'm Santa Claus. We have this phone set up just to talk to you. Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Have you been very good this year?, Cade, Yes. I want to tell you what I want for Christmas. And can you bring something for my mommy too?, Gen. (Ret.) Gene Renuart, Well, I'd love to hear what you'd like for Christmas. And of course, I will try to bring something nice for your mom. Would it be all right if I talk to her now., Drew Lawrence, Col. Shoup heard the kid pass the phone to his mother. She explained that her child dialed a number listed in a Sears Roebuck ad in a Colorado Springs newspaper, so the legend goes. It featured a…, Thomas Novelly, Yeah, totally Drew and she's a very good dog. She might be on the naughty list for interrupting this podcast. So I appreciate your patience. And I gotta say, just opening the show -- that was a…, Drew Lawrence, No, yeah, I appreciate it. Special thanks to General Gene Renuart, who we're going to hear a little bit from later. He was the former commander for NORAD. And he actually voiced Col. Shoup for us. So…, Thomas Novelly, I gotta ask: who was the kid?, Drew Lawrence, Yeah, so that was our executive editor, Amy Bushatz, that was her, her neighbor, Cade, who was a really good sport about voicing the youngster who apparently called into this secure line to one of…, Thomas Novelly, Yeah, totally. And I think you bring up a great point. And that's if you were to stop somebody on the street and ask them what NORAD is, they'll either a.) not know what it is or b.) they'll say, 'oh…, Drew Lawrence, Taking it back, right. It's 1955. It's the Cold War. Col. Shoup gets this call from a kid on the now infamous red telephone. That's kind of where this whole thing started. Right?, Thomas Novelly, Yeah, that's where the tradition for kids calling into NORAD to find out where Santa is located -- that's where that started. But I want to take you back seven years earlier to 1948. And that's when…, Radio Operator, Our early warning radar net to the north gives following spot position report of object detected heading southerly direction: one unidentified sleigh, powered by eight reindeer, at…, Thomas Novelly, And with that report, given nearly 74 years ago, NORAD tracked Santa for that first time. And you're right. You know, the Santa Colonel really solidified this tradition of kids calling in to get the…, Drew Lawrence, Gotcha. So, you know, as I understand it, when NORAD Tracks Santa today, it sounds a little different than that 1948 report. Right?, Thomas Novelly, Right. Technology's changed a lot. And so now it'll sound a little smoother. It'll sound a little something like this., NORAD Capt., This is Air Force Captain Sable Brown of the North American Aerospace Defense Command with this hour's Santa Claus flight report. Minutes ago, NORAD, Santa-cam spotted Santa flying over beautiful…, Drew Lawrence, I mean, that's awesome. It's kind of cool to see that thread from, you know, 1948 to now. But I want to hear more about this so called Santa Colonel, right. And the little kid that supposedly called…, Thomas Novelly, Right. So as you talked about in the beginning, there's this legend of the Santa Colonel as we know it, but we got to put that fun story also into some context of the Cold War. I mean, it was scary,…, Drew Lawrence, You talked to some of those service members and volunteers behind the tradition. You know, who are these people and what did they tell you about the tradition?, Thomas Novelly, It's mostly made of service members, it's service members from NORAD, who are very familiar with the tradition and volunteered their time on Christmas Eve. But also, it's made up of volunteers around…, Capt. Alexandra Hejduk, People are waiting for months to sign up. And they're just so excited to be a part of the NORAD Track Santa program. So it's a lot of fun. Volunteerism has a little bit of selfishness to it, if you…, Drew Lawrence, What does today look like for the 1500 service members and volunteers who operate these phones in the call center?, Thomas Novelly, So Christmas Eve was just this culmination of months of planning. So in some way, it's kind of this sigh of relief that the day is finally here. And then that is just also replaced by a bunch of…, Preston Schlachter, That everybody is so pumped to be there. It's really, really cool. And then when you're taking calls, the call volume is so intense that as soon as you take a call and answer and hang up, the phones…, Drew Lawrence, And so I want to ask, why does NORAD do this? And I don't mean this to sound like a grinchy question. But some troops are staying up manning these lines for kids on a pretty family-oriented holiday,…, Thomas Novelly, That's a great question. And honestly, fair, right. Like, I know, I would be grinchy if I had to give up my Christmas Eve to, you know, go and answer a bunch of phone calls and get up super early in…, Gen. (Ret.) Gene Renuart, You know we have a lot of young soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen who come in and volunteer before they go home to their Christmas or they're here for Christmas and not able to get…, Thomas Novelly, Another person who told me about this, Schlachter, who we talked about earlier, he's a former Airman and he described the energy to me too, and there's just no grinching to be found on the operations…, Preston Schlachter, It's just amazing because we're starting this event four in the morning here in Mountain Time, right? I'm amazed at the level of energy, like there's no one ever dragging their feet to come in there…, Drew Lawrence, And Tom, I think the piece that you wrote about this touches on a really excellent point. Because sometimes the military and in some ways the world can seem a little grim at times, it can seem like a…, Thomas Novelly, Yeah, that's what I think, really touched me the most when I was reporting on the story was just that, you know, the military is a tough job. I mean, it's filled with stressful assignments, career…, Gen. (Ret.) Gene Renuart, You realize that as you are focused on your your day to day, very serious, NORAD NORTHCOM mission of defending the air of space and seas surrounding our nation and with with the challenges and…, Drew Lawrence, Okay, so Tom, I think we're getting to the question that everyone's been waiting for. But if I or any of our listeners wanted to call in to find out where Santa is this year on Christmas Eve, how…, Thomas Novelly, Y'all can call into 1-877-HI-NORAD to call into the volunteers who are manning that call center and they'll give you the up to date info on where Santa is. They'll be working all day, so they'll be…, Drew Lawrence, Thomas Novelly I know you said that kids will be calling in but you can, you can count me in for a call to NORAD. I appreciate you helping us tell the story. Thank you so much to you and to your…, Thomas Novelly, My pleasure and happy holidays to all the listeners., Drew Lawrence, Listeners, please join me in welcoming the 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey for a special reading of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore., Gen. (Ret.) Martin Dempsey, 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be…, Drew Lawrence, Thank you so much to Thomas Novelly and his excellent reporting on the volunteers behind the NORAD calls. And thank you to Generals Martin Dempsey and Gene Renuart for lending their voices to this…, Cade, Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!, Amy Bushatz, Oh, wow. That was good, Cade!, Cade, Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!, Amy Bushatz, Hey, Huck where's your phone, man? So Cade., Cade, Do you need something?, Amy Bushatz, Yes, I do need something. Okay. All right. Here's what we're gonna do, okay. I'm gonna say a line and then you're just gonna say it after me., Cade, Okay., Amy Bushatz, Okay, so here's what I'm gonna say. Just like if you were on the phone, okay. All right. So: "Are you really Santa Claus?", Cade, Are you really Santa Claus?, Amy Bushatz, You want to do it one more time? "Are you really Santa Claus?", Cade, Are you really Santa Claus?, Amy Bushatz, That was so good, okay. All right, so now you can say...I'm gonna...I can ask you if you've been a good boy. If Santa Claus asked you if you've been a good boy, what would you say?, Cade, I would say...yes., Amy Bushatz, Okay, so can you say, um: "yeah?", Cade, Yeah?, Amy Bushatz, All right. Have you been a good boy?, Cade, Yes..., Amy Bushatz, Can you say: "Yes, I want to tell you what I want for Christmas and if you could bring something nice for my mommy too.", Cade, Yes..okay I think I can memorize half of that., Amy Bushatz, Okay, so say: "yes, I want to tell you what I want for Christmas and if you could bring something for my mommy too.", Cade, Ok...go? Yes...I'm not gonna tell you what I want for Christmas, but I want you to bring something for my mommy too, Amy Bushatz, Okay, hoow about: "I am going to tell you what I want for Christmas. And if you could bring something for my mommy too.", Cade, I am going to tell you what..uh...I want for Christmas and I am going to tell you too., Amy Bushatz, Okay, how about this: "I'm going to tell you what I want for Christmas. And can you bring something for my mommy too?", Cade, I'm going to tell you....I want..., Amy Bushatz, I'm gonna tell you what I want for Christmas. And can you bring something for my mommy too?, Cade, I'm going to tell you what I want for Christmas. And can you bring something for my mommy too?, Amy Bushatz, Oh, that was so good. Okay, so have you been a good boy?, Cade, Have you been a good boy?, Amy Bushatz, I'm going to ask you, “have you been a good boy?” and then you're going to respond., Cade, Okay., Amy Bushatz, Cade, have you been a good boy?, Cade, Yes, I have., Amy Bushatz, Okay...are you going to tell me what you want for Christmas?, Cade, Uh...sure.

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