
NORAD's Santa Tracker Began with a Typo and a Good Sport (2014) - aaronbrethorst
http://www.npr.org/2014/12/19/371647099/norads-santa-tracker-began-with-a-typo-and-a-good-sport
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stinkytaco
An offtopicish observation.

The military is often perceived as an inflexible, bureaucratic institution.
Unchanging and rigidly top down. In my experience during service, this wasn't
the case. Commanders, and even enlisted soldiers were encouraged and supported
in coming up with creative solutions, often to deal with a lack of resources
or support from that bureaucratic, top down hierarchy. A story like this is
always fun to read because it was largely a grassroots effort, some of which I
saw come to fruition in the service when on-the-ground solutions were widely
adopted.

~~~
germinalphrase
Your comments seem to be in conflict with reports that suggest many of our
military's best officers are leaving the service due to a resistance to
entrepreneurial thinking [0].

I'm a civilian and have no personal insight into this topic, but I find the
dynamics interesting.

[0]
[http://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/308346/](http://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/308346/)

~~~
stinkytaco
After reading the article, I think we might be talking about two different
things. But first of all, as a non-comm I was familiar with the political
machinations of the officer core, but not directly involved. I can't comment
too much other than that politics _did_ exist and sometimes hurt qualified
officers. However, the adherence to "zero flaws" is a curious dilemma. On one
hand, the military is under the microscope of public scrutiny. Every decision
is subject to being picked up in the press and dissected or spun one way or
another. This isn't necessarily bad, but it does lead to a culture of
conservatism. Everyone is trying to make sure _they_ are not the ones who take
the flack. On the other hand, threats and theaters change and rapid adaptation
is sometimes required.

Of the solutions offered some good but some present serious flaws. For
example, an internal "job market", though it resembles a working system in the
private sector, doesn't reflect the undesirable nature of most postings that
_need_ good officers. The the example of Captain Smart who wants to work in
Korea is a poor one because _no one_ wants Korea (this is an exaggeration,
obviously, but there is no question there were more soldiers who wanted Europe
over Korea, despite the more urgent need for good soldiers in Korea). If you
have a certain skill set and you are needed in Iraq, you need to go to Iraq.
This isn't the private sector where 1. You just don't build a factory in a
warzone and 2. You can offer a bunch of extra money to attract those
employees. The nature of the service is such that sometimes you need to do
things you don't want. Another option touched on -- keeping people in roles
they prefer -- is a good suggestion, I think. I have often wondered why the
path is always up to command. If you are a good mechanic, pilot, radio
operator, etc. why can't you continue to rise in pay and prestige while still
doing what you are best at? There is a the warrant officer corps for branches
that have that, but that's a limited option.

However, that's still tangential to my experience. What I mean is that problem
solving was actively encouraged. The initial invasion of Iraq revealed the
poor state of readiness of the service for the mission at hand and daily
soldiers on the ground were finding solutions and sharing them. When I was in,
the Army set up a group called The Center for Lessons Learned. They actually
had a hotline where you could call up and tell them things you learned. They
published a regular newsletter with some of these tidbits. (I believe there
was a This American Life episode about it.)

When there were issues on the ground, the company commander had a great deal
of leeway to coordinate local resources directly, rather than referring to a
specific agency set up for that purpose. Equipment modifications or procedural
changes were a fairly regular part of the day to day work. Even the day to day
patrols were often coordinated with local authorities to ensure everything
went smoothly.

The Army _is_ a bureaucratic organization, one that could be frustrating (I am
not in any more, after all), but it was also one that revealed more ingenuity
than I often see in large private organizations.

~~~
gohrt
Why should soldiers be forced to take assignments and pay they don't want?
Contractors don't get forced to build a project for the military's price, they
get to negotiate.

Soldiers should be able to choose whether to accept an assignment or quit
their job. If the nation doesn't want to pay for a certain war/fort/whatever,
the nation can sacrifice it, instead of impressing soldiers into service.

~~~
stinkytaco
First of all, it's a volunteer military. You are not required to join, and you
know what you are getting into when you do.

Second of all, what you are essentially suggesting is a private military (one
where people come and go as they please and pay is at the market rate). That's
certainly an option, but after seeing the results of other privatization
schemes that one might consider similar, say the use of security contractors
or private prisons, I'm skeptical.

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tempodox
Santa tracker is a missing feature in every astronomy and stargazing app I
know.

~~~
dingaling
Beyond its mythical nature, it's orthogonal to astronomy anyhow; "Santa" is
supposed to be magical but Earthly, not astronomical.

Flightradar24 usually do some form of 'Santa Tracker' on the appropriate dates
which is a more appropriate context, if you believe it should be encouraged at
all.

~~~
tempodox
Yep. Low Earth orbit, confined to regions under christian influence. My
comment was tongue-in-cheek.

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geofft
Apparently this is only somewhat true: the child had mis-dialed the number,
instead of accurately dialing a misprint (and so there were no further calls).
CONAD/NORAD were working on a PR campaign anyway and decided to incorporate
this and make a Santa Tracker, so it _is_ true that the tracker got started
when Col. Shoup / the military decided to make it exist after this call.

[https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/how-the-u-s-military-
turned-...](https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/how-the-u-s-military-turned-santa-
claus-into-a-cold-wa-1664149776)

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mattmaroon
It was originally a Satan tracker!

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Theodores
This story is as fact oriented as Santa, Rudolph and the other reindeer are.
This is HN, creation myths are given a hard time.

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rcarmo
I love this story, even though I've seen quite a few different variations of
it over the years. There was a long-form article a couple of years back that
makes this NPR piece look like a blog comment, but I can't find it anymore (I
think it was on MetaFilter)

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chris_wot
Yeah, but the typo wasn't in the phone number, they misspelled "Satan".

~~~
chris_wot
Ha! At least someone has a warped sense of humour and six of you do not!
Either way, a score of -4 is good for all of us.

