70 years of tracking Santa Claus
December 24, 2025 • 4m 55s
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
00:00.150
santa
claus
has
started
his
christmas
journey
and
the
experts
at
north
american
aerospace
defense
command
are
tracking
his
path
now
for
the
seventieth
year
joining
us
now
from
norad
air
force
general
gregory
guillo
general
it's
good
to
have
you
on
good
morning
godspeed
be
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
00:19.110
careful
do
you
have
time
to
talk
to
us
or
should
you
be
somewhere
else
of
course
Gregory Guillot (General)
00:25.830
i
have
time
to
talk
mary
are
you
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
00:28.030
sure
we
don't
want
to
you
know
we
safety
is
is
paramount
here
can
you
tell
the
story
since
it's
seventy
years
what
happened
it
before
i
was
born
andrew
nineteen
fifty
so
this
is
before
i
was
born
general
when
when
this
first
happened
some
kid
there
was
a
a
phone
number
on
TV
to
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
00:46.270
call
santa
and
he
transposed
a
number
and
got
norad
or
the
predecessor
to
norad
that
really
happened
that
Gregory Guillot (General)
00:53.510
that's
exactly
right
colonel
shoot
answered
the
call
he
was
on
a
alert
you
know
we
have
the
watch
and
have
had
it
for
seventy
years
and
he
quickly
thought
through
the
problem
and
and
ease
the
the
kids
concerned
and
told
him
that
santa
was
airborne
but
not
able
to
talk
at
that
Gregory Guillot (General)
01:11.030
time
and
that
started
the
tradition
that's
continued
for
the
seventy
years
since
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
01:15.150
that's
really
an
unbelievable
story
is
it
is
the
weather
cooperating
this
year
Gregory Guillot (General)
01:22.350
it
is
santa
's
airborne
on
his
way
towards
the
international
dateline
and
and
russia
right
now
weather
is
a
little
warmer
in
some
places
than
expected
but
we
checked
yesterday
and
no
cause
for
concern
no
delays
no
cancellations
the
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
01:39.190
i
mean
i
assume
that
you
need
to
alert
air
traffic
controllers
and
and
and
everyone
else
that
we
had
an
incident
earlier
this
week
where
you
know
elon
musk
keeps
sending
up
these
some
of
these
these
rockets
that
you
know
since
it's
experimental
many
of
them
are
designed
or
or
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
01:58.190
what
happens
is
they
explode
and
and
it
actually
affected
some
some
air
travel
i
guess
you
need
to
be
very
careful
in
terms
of
of
santa
as
well
Gregory Guillot (General)
02:08.310
yes
we're
very
careful
we
coordinate
with
all
the
right
agencies
but
santa
is
probably
the
most
disciplined
and
capable
aviator
that
we've
ever
seen
and
so
he
generally
can
avoid
any
type
of
of
conflict
and
you
know
i
can't
recall
a
single
incident
where
we've
had
him
near
miss
Gregory Guillot (General)
02:25.630
anybody
he
he's
a
he's
a
skilled
aviator
do
you
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
02:30.110
do
you
still
get
calls
from
kids
today
we
get
a
lot
how
many
will
you
get
how
many
people
do
you
have
manning
the
phones
you
don't
answer
all
of
them
do
you
that's
Gregory Guillot (General)
02:40.030
no
i
i
personally
don't
know
but
we
already
have
on
on
staff
over
about
two
hundred
or
more
volunteers
throughout
the
entire
day
that
are
answering
calls
all
day
long
and
so
it'll
go
from
our
time
at
about
four
in
the
morning
all
the
way
through
the
night
to
to
track
santa
's
Gregory Guillot (General)
02:58.390
journey
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
02:59.110
so
where
right
now
where
is
he
exactly
Gregory Guillot (General)
03:02.550
right
now
he's
over
russia
and
making
his
way
towards
the
wake
islands
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
03:07.230
making
his
way
towards
the
end
you
know
not
the
world
is
a
dangerous
place
i
i
would
imagine
flying
over
russia
at
this
point
has
it
has
its
own
concerns
as
well
general
and
we
love
to
do
this
every
what's
what's
the
next
stop
Gregory Guillot (General)
03:24.030
next
up
after
russia
wake
in
the
marshall
islands
and
then
we
don't
always
know
his
exact
path
but
he'll
work
his
way
through
the
asian
continent
westward
towards
europe
and
then
eventually
north
america
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
03:39.110
and
how
does
norad
actually
track
him
is
it
radar
is
it
satellite
is
it
what
what
actually
technique
is
used
Gregory Guillot (General)
03:47.550
well
all
the
above
radar
satellite
as
well
as
fighter
aircraft
airborne
radar
aircraft
we
take
all
of
those
different
systems
and
layer
them
together
to
make
sure
that
we
can
track
them
through
all
weather
all
conditions
rudolph
's
with
a
shiny
nose
and
the
infrared
sensors
is
Gregory Guillot (General)
04:03.670
is
helpful
for
us
to
track
that
as
well
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
04:07.800
OK
general
thank
you
well
any
changes
that
that
is
it
do
you
call
it
the
department
of
war
now
general
i
in
the
notes
it
is
it's
the
department
of
war
at
this
point
is
it
not
Gregory Guillot (General)
04:21.030
the
norad
part
of
that
that's
right
you
you
see
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
04:24.830
any
mac
any
major
changes
in
the
last
couple
of
years
Gregory Guillot (General)
04:29.470
certainly
not
with
this
mission
we
have
a
very
reliable
teammate
in
in
santa
we
have
really
great
systems
that
we
use
every
day
to
track
activity
around
the
continental
united
states
and
canada
and
we
use
the
same
systems
to
track
santa
everything
's
on
track
and
one
hundred
Gregory Guillot (General)
04:46.440
percent
operational
general
Joe Kernen (Anchor)
04:48.720
i
know
you
got
to
go
you've
got
a
lot
of
these
hits
coming
it's
always
enjoyable
thank
you
we
appreciate
it
and
thanks
for
what
you're
doing
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