A Colorado woman recalls a phone call that turned her father into NORAD’s “Santa Colonel.”

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) uses radar, satellites and jets to monitor the skies every day. But on Christmas Eve it’s time for her very special mission – Follow the path of Santa Claus. It all started with a phone call.

In 1955, six-year-old Terri Shoup Van Keuren lived with her family in Colorado Springs. Her father, Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup, was stationed at CONAD, the predecessor of NORAD.

“The year 1955 was in the middle of the Cold War, and that was no joke. “We were all convinced that the Russians would send fighter jets to attack the United States,” Van Keuren explained.

A telephone on Shoup’s desk was directly connected to the Pentagon. One night in December, while Shoup was on duty as commanding officer, the phone rang.

“And this little voice said, ‘Is that Santa Claus?'” Van Keuren recalled of that night. “Dad said, ‘This is Col. Shoup, the commander of the Combat Alert Center in Colorado Springs. Who is that?!’”

Van Keuren says her father was strict at first and thought the call might be a prank. But then the voice tearfully asked if Shoup was one of Santa’s helpers.

“Dad finally realized it was a kid and said, ‘Ho, ho, ho, those aren’t Santa’s helpers. This is Santa Claus,’” Van Keuren explained.

Shoup soon learned that a local newspaper had advertised a phone number for children to call Santa Claus.

“They misspelled a number and it happened to be my father’s top secret phone,” Van Keuren said.

In the spirit of Christmas, Shoup encouraged everyone at CONAD to report Santa’s whereabouts to any child who calls.

Van Keuren says someone at CONAD drew a sleigh on a large map of the sky, and the reputable agency took on the light-hearted mission. Soon the news spread that they were tracking down Santa Claus and the whole world got wind of it.

“My dad calls the radio station and says, ‘This is Col. Shoup from the Continental Air Defense Command. We have an unknown object. Hey, that looks like a sleigh!’” Van Keuren recalled.

Col. Shoup died in 2009, but his legacy lives on. People remember Van Keuren’s father as “the Santa Colonel.”

“Colonel Harry Shoup answered that call at the operations center that day. We’ve kept this tradition going ever since,” said Preston Schlachter of NORAD.

Today, NORAD tracks the infrared heat signature from Rudolph’s nose and informs the world online and through its hotline.

“We opened at 4 a.m. this morning and will stay open until midnight,” Schlachter said. “During this 20-hour period, we expect around 900 people to answer calls from all over the world.”

Volunteers tell callers around the world where Santa’s sleigh is and when it will arrive in their community.

75-year-old Terri Shoup Van Keuren now lives in Castle Rock but never misses Christmas Eve at NORAD.

“Most of the time the kids ask, ‘Where is Santa Claus?’ So tell them where he is. They always want to know, ‘When is he going to be home with me?'” Van Keuren said.

To see when Santa will arrive at your home, call 1-877-HI-NORAD or visit noradsanta.org.

That Christmas Eve, Van Keuren set out with others from her Bonaventure independent living facility to answer the phone and make a child’s Christmas special, just as her father had done for previous generations.

“He loved Christmas,” Van Keuren said. “He loved children.”