Wrangell Sentinel -

Every Christmas holiday, the men and women of the United States Air Force’s North American Aerospace Defense Command turn their satellite dishes northward to track a very special target.

The Alaskan region of NORAD at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson tracks that bogey, otherwise known as Santa Claus, every year on the evening of Dec. 24.

USAF Master Sergeant Mikal Canfield said the process of tracking Santa begins in Alaska and is spread across the world as the evening moves on.

“It all starts with NORAD’s northern warning system,” Canfield said. “This powerful system has 47 tracking stations i...