HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Christmas is just five days away, and the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command on Redstone Arsenal protects us every day. But, on Christmas Eve they add the important mission of to tracking Santa! FOX54 took a sneak peak at their Santa tracker to see what's on the radar.
Space and Missile Defense Command employee Tameyra Bohannan said her role is to ensure Santa's safety in delivering toys to all the children. Bohannan believes this task is not always necessarily the easiest, but it is one of the most rewarding. "You know, children deserve the best. This is a great time of year for us all to come together to love on each other and to care for each other and to ensure that we're making the best out of this season."
So what actually goes into tracking Santa? U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Commanding General Daniel Karbler breaks is down. "So you'll see the operators here on the consoles. They're making sure that they have all their communications right. We can see that we have callsign Santa six up there as one of our tracks that we have for the rehearsal. And also this year we have two new pieces of equipment that we're bringing into the architecture. We have a couple of low level yield radars. The first one is the hypersonic object, low level yield radar, and then the joint orbit, low level yield radar. So those two radars together help us to track Santa even better."
Considering that Santa has to travel about 650 miles per second to ensure that all the children around the world get their presents, it is all all about one thing. "This is a great opportunity for Huntsville to see what Space and Missile Defense Command does on a day to day basis. We operate these systems 24 seven 365 to make sure that our homeland stays safe. But in this particular instance, this time of year, we also have to make sure that we track Santa and keep him safe."