Operation North Pole

A merry mission to track Santa Claus.

One day in December 1955, Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup received an unexpected call on his red phone — a top-secret hotline — at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). It was the height of the Cold War, and Colonel Shoup was in charge of a radar system built to give early warning of a Soviet attack. To his surprise, it was a call from a child asking to speak to Santa Claus. At StoryCorps, Terri Van Keuren, Rick Shoup, and Pam Farrell—three of Colonel Shoup’s four children—share the tale of what happened next, and how their father created a beloved Christmas Eve tracking tradition.