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FYI

The Wrong Number That Launched The Santa Tracker

“They had one digit wrong, and it was my father’s top-secret phone number,” Shoup’s daughter, Terri Van Keuren, recalls. “So now the phone is ringing off the hook.”

The Wrong Number That Launched The Santa Tracker

By External Source

When the dreaded red phone rang inside the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) operations centre on the last day of November in 1955, the mood at the nerve centre of America’s nuclear defense grew nervous. At a time when the Cold War raged and Soviet fighter jets routinely buzzed dangerously close to Alaskan airspace, U.S. Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup knew that a call over the top-secret hotline wouldn’t be good news.


Anxious that the caller might be the president or a four-star general warning of an atomic attack on the United States, Shoup steeled himself as he answered the hotline that was directly wired from his command post in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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“Yes, sir, this is Colonel Shoup,” he answered in his finest military cadence. Met with only silence, he repeated, “Sir, this is Colonel Shoup.” Still nothing. “Sir, can you read me alright?” Shoup asked before he received a most unexpected reply from the soft voice of a child.

“Are you really Santa Claus?”

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Jade Eagleson

Awards

Jade Eagleson, The Reklaws Lead CMAOntario Nominations in 2024

The Country Music Association of Ontario has announced the nominations for its 12th annual CMAOntario Awards, with Jade Eagleson racking up five nominations. The awards will be presented on June 2 at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga.

Jade Eagleson is poised to win big at the CMAOntario Awards, presented by the Country Music Association of Ontario.

The "Rodeo Queen" singer picked up five awards nominations today, including Single of the Year, Album/EP of the Year, and Male Artist of the Year — the most nominations of any artist. Eagleson is followed by sibling duo The Reklaws, rising artists Josh Ross and Karli June, and mainstay Meghan Patrick, who all have four nominations each.

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