(Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck) Hi I’m Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command.
NORAD tracks the skies and approaches to North America
24/7, 365 days a year. But every year on Dec. 24, we have a special holiday mission.
(Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. James Porterfield) This year, we've asked some of our military and civilian members’ little ones to help us explain
just how NORAD is able to track Santa Claus on his journey across the globe on December 24.
30, 85, 100 years old. He's over 100. 400... 400? No, he's a thousand hundred years old.
He's more than all the numbers. Not one years old. He's not a baby. He's a big grandpa. My dad is 31.
Well there's certainly, uh, a lot of different answers amongst the kids on how old Santa Claus is. And he certainly isn't a baby.
He's definitely not one years old.
Oh, with his sled and his reindeer. He has invisible rocket boosters. Because of the flying reindeers. The flying reindeer.
That's why he put invisible spray on him. But if he accidentally sprays an elf with it,
then you'll get invisible.
Invisible elves, Invisible elves. He's got some invisible spray that helps them get around the world fast. So, it's amazing what they come up with as far as
how he travels, with some fast reindeer, by the way. That is stealth technology. They already know about it.
Eighty mph. Um, 100 seconds per hour. Medium fast? Like this!
I think I’m gonna have to go back and do some math. We're talking seconds per hour. I’m not sure exactly how to figure it out.
A million seconds per hour, and then his, uh, I don't know his visual of, uh, the windmill,
I’m not even sure how fast he was going.
What? Do you have cameras? Do you even have cameras at your chimney? You use satellites with little cameras built inside of them.
I always watched the tracker before bed. Without a satellite would not be able to do anything.
You track Santa from here and watch on your phone or tablet or iPad.
And, so, I’m impressed the young man knows about satellite capability and and all the devices. He was clearly watching Santa Claus on phones, on the computers, on iPads.
He just, he knew every, he knew where to go to find Santa;
so, I’m pretty sure he's going to be tracking this year.
Yeah, so, watching these young kids is really exciting, and that gets me all pumped up for NORAD Track Santa coming up
in December. This is just the beginning, but they're clearly ready,
and I look forward to making NORAD Track Santa happens again here in 2021. Yes sir, and you know you can't help but smile and just
watching that, the excitement of this year, and them watching, tracking Santa. So it's going to be a pretty exciting time this year.
(Narrator) Thank you to all the NORAD and U.S. Northern Command American and Canadian parents
and their children who volunteered to participate in this production.
Thank you to our service members and our civilians who keep the watch 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,
and thank you for being part of our NORAD Tracks Santa tradition. Happy Holidays from all of us here at NORAD.
(Narrator) You can track Santa on Dec. 24 by calling the NORAD Tracks
Santa operations center, downloading our mobile app and visiting our website: noradsanta.org