Santa's Convoy

There may be no snow for Santa's sleigh in Iraq, but he does have other options with a little help from his friends at the US Army. While actual pictures of his convoy are classified, these are "lawn models" of Santa's convoy below.

Instead of nine reindeer to pull his sleigh, Santa utilizes an eight vehicle convoy to get him from house to house on the night of Christmas Eve.

Since Santa is "flying" lower than normal each HUMVEE is manned with Elf gunners, Santa included.

Of course HUMVEEs don't run on carrots, like reindeer, so they're maintained at various garages across Iraq provided by the US Army. Mosul's is pictured below.

You can track Santa's sleigh at: www.noradsanta.com

For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa. The tradition began after a Colorado Springs based Sears Roebuck & Co. store advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hot line" included an inadvertently misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hot line". The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first "Santa" call on Christmas Eve 1955.

Santa's convoy operations are classified. Sorry.