Virginia Cooper

The Christmas season is in full swing, and the Santa believers out there are waiting for NORAD to broadcast their famous Santa tracker.

Along with watching Santa and his trusty reindeer fly through the night, an unusual addition has been added. Two fighter jets will be escorting old Saint Nick as he delivers presents.

NORAD’s tracking system starts the moment Santa Claus leaves the North Pole, and until his last stop is made, children are given updates throughout the night. Beginning this year, the fighter jets will accompany Santa and as NORAD says, “even though Santa flies faster than any jet fighter (Santa actually slows down for us to escort him).”

Along with the escorts, NORAD has also launched an additional video, which includes animation and real life clips. In the video, military commanders are performing a flight test, and intelligence officers are confirming that the airs will be clear for Santa. The intelligence officers also say that Jack Frost and the Abominable Snowman will not be causing a trouble in his travels.

Around 50 years ago, a newspaper based in Colorado Springs mistakenly listed the Continental Air Defense number for children to reach Santa. The calls were directed to the CONAD hotline, the predecessor to NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense program). That year calls came in at record highs. Ever since then, NORAD has decided to keep up with the mistake because it has now become a Christmas tradition.

Volunteers have selflessly given their time to tell children exactly where Santa Claus is. Last year, over 22 million people took to the Internet to watch the tracker and even over 100,000 calls came in.

The Santa tracker has become widely recognized for joining in the holiday spirit, but the newest addition to an old tradition has received widespread backlash as to what the real reason is for inviting these new fighter jet escorts.

John A. Davis, spokesman for NORAD, has said that the reason for including the fighter jets is to mainly give the Santa tracker more of a realistic and operational touch. Despite that the latest touch has made the website seem more realistic, some parents and child advocates do not share the same opinions. The main controversy surrounding the issue is whether or not the military is using the new installment to appeal to children as an ad.

Jim Reily, military veteran, says, “I’ve always thought highly of the military and I don’t think they are using it to appeal to children. I think they are just trying to make the whole Santa tracker more realistic.”

French teacher and mother of two young children Jennifer Zichterman states, “We watch the Santa tracker and I never thought of [fighter jets] as a ploy to recruit new people. I think if kids are already interested in the military the fighter jets might reinforce it.” The idea presented by Zichterman is the problem that even brought the Santa tracker to light, since anti-military activists felt that fighter jets would cause children to think more about joining the military.

Allen Kanner, a California psychologist, believes, “Children associate Santa with gifts and fun . . . [now] they are associating this with the military in children’s minds.” Although Stephanie Rossi, psychology teacher and mother of three, believes that “[there is] nothing wrong with it and I do believe the psychologist is making a big deal out of it.”

Whether Americans believe in what NORAD is doing, NORAD and the military still stand by their true mission to provide a sense of hope for the Santa believers left and to make sure that children all over believe that Santa Claus is flying right above their homes waiting to deliver presents.