美軍追蹤聖誕老人行蹤 第一夫人接聽兒童電話

From the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the personnel of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) scrutinise the skies for such aerial threats as missile attacks and hijacked planes.

But for the next 24 hours, Norad will not just be monitoring all aircraft, missiles and spacecraft with its network of satellites, ground and airborne radar and fighter jets.

The US and Canadian military will also track the global flight path of a distinctive rotund red-clad individual on a sleigh and his team of reindeer, for the entertainment of children around the world.

Deploying the latest social media tools to chart the progress of an ancient traveller, Norad’s Christmas Eve Santa Tracker is expected to hit another record this year, bolstered by an unusual dose of controversy about the “militarisation” of the season.

Last year, the operation attracted some 22 million website visits, 1.2 million Facebook followers, 950,000 smartphone application downloads and 129,0000 Twitter followers as well as 114,000 old-fashioned telephone calls.

Michelle Obama is among the 1,200 volunteers expected to help handle enquiries this Christmas Eve, fielding calls forwarded to the first family’s holiday retreat in Hawaii, as she has since 2010. More than a fifth of the enquiries come from Britain.

Unsurprisingly, the most popular question are variants of “where is Santa and when is he arriving at my house?” But volunteers also handle inquiries ranging from his age and elf workforce to whether he leaves presents for dogs or delivers to heaven. And from some older children, there are inevitable doubts about whether Santa does exist.

Major Jamie Humphreys is among those who will be dealing with the incoming barrage. “Nearly all the kids want to know when he’s going to be delivering their presents,” he said. “We tell them that we can’t give a firm time, but they do have to be asleep. When we say that, we can often hear the parents on the line adding ‘yes’ or ‘did you hear that?’ in a relieved tone.”

“For those who ask his age, we tell them that Norad intelligence indicates that Santa is at least 16 centuries old. And if they are sounding sceptical, I tell them to believe in their dreams.”

Nothing can prepare the Santa tracking team for some questions, however – like the boy who called the hotline last year, 10 days after the Sandy Hook school massacre.

“I’m from Newtown, Connecticut, where the shooting was,” he said. “Is it possible that Santa can bring extra presents so I can deliver them to the families that lost kids?”

Sara Berghoff, the volunteer who took the call, was briefly taken off guard, not least as she was just 13. “If I can get ahold of him, I’ll try to get the message to him,” she said, answering on her feet.

The programme began by accident when Colorado children flooded the hotline of Norad’s predecessor with calls after a local newspaper mistakenly printed its number in a Christmas advertisement in 1955.

It is of course intended as feel-good festive fun, not to mention some good public relations for the US and Canadian militaries in what has become the defence department’s biggest public outreach operation.

But an unexpected tinge of controversy was thrown into the mix this year when the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood criticised an animated video on the Norad Santa website.

The clip, which showed two unarmed Canadian F-18 fighter jets briefly escorting Santa’s sleigh, injected “militarism” into a beloved tradition, the children’s advocacy group complained.

It was a criticism that rather bemused those at Norad, not least as this indeed a joint US-Canadian military operation that oversees patrols of the skies. And Norad has long shown its fighter jets in its tracking imagery.

As to Santa’s route, there is of course no advance flight path, but he usually sweeps down from the North Pole, heading across the world from east to west, before looping into the Pacific to Hawaii and a traditional final stop in Alaska en route back to his Arctic home.英國《每日電訊報》報道，北美防空聯合司令部(NORAD)再次啓動了一年一度的聖誕老人追蹤計劃。其位於落基山腳下的總部將不僅通過其精密的雷達監視系統檢測飛入美國領空的飛機和導彈，還將與加拿大的軍方一道追蹤一個獨特的飛行體在聖誕前夕的行蹤：聖誕老人和他的馴鹿隊。

NORAD專門爲這項行動設立了“聖誕老人追蹤網站”，去年該網站點擊率達到2200萬，在臉譜網吸引了約120萬追隨者，主題智能手機軟件下載量達到95五次，推特網粉絲數增加了約129萬。此外還有11.4萬人打進了熱線電話。

從美國東部時間12月24日凌晨2點開始到25日凌晨5點，約有1200志願者將幫助接聽孩子們打來的熱線電話。美國第一夫人米歇爾·奧巴馬也是志願者之一，屆時電話將被轉接到第一家庭在夏威夷的度假地，她將與其他志願者一道回答孩子們的提問。

每年，志願者們都會接到五花八門的問題，最熱門的問題當屬“聖誕老人飛到哪裏了？他什麼時候到我家”，除此之外還有打聽聖誕老人的年紀以及他是否會給寵物送禮物，是否會將禮物送到天堂等等，當然年紀大一點兒的孩子還會問聖誕老人是不是真的存在。

“NORAD官方提供的答案是，聖誕老人的年紀大概有16個世紀那麼長。對於那些明顯有點懷疑的人，我會勸告他們相信夢的力量。”志願者之一傑米·漢弗萊斯說道。

這項行動可以追溯到1955年，當時一家報紙刊登了聖誕節廣告，聲稱只要撥入熱線就能夠聯繫上聖誕老人。然而這個熱線號碼卻被印錯了一個字母，陰差陽錯的印成了NORAD的官方熱線。在聖誕那天，數以萬計的孩子打入了這個電話，NORAD的工作人員也將錯就錯的扮演起了聖誕老人的代理人，這個傳統一直延續至今。

雖然有人質疑美軍藉此宣傳其軍事力量，將軍事主義的思想灌輸給孩子，但是NORAD的聖誕老人追蹤計劃仍然廣受歡迎。當然，聖誕老人並沒有一個確切的飛行路線，但是他通常情況下會從北極出發，然後由東向西飛越地球，在夏威夷稍作停留之後飛向阿拉斯加，最後回到自己位於北極的家。