{"id":2892,"date":"2016-04-15T18:08:41","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T18:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/?p=2892"},"modified":"2016-04-15T18:08:41","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T18:08:41","slug":"the-watchers-in-the-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/2016\/04\/15\/the-watchers-in-the-mountain\/","title":{"rendered":"The Watchers in the Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re not talking about mountain lions, hawks, or some other wild animal, we’re talking about NORAD and the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.\u00a0 If you ever drive through Colorado Springs, when you get to the south end of town, past Pikes Peak, you’ll likely notice a large group of antennas on the peaks of the southern-most mountains in the range.\u00a0 That is the only sign that the group of men and women who constantly scan the skies in search of any incoming threats to the United States or Canada reside inside Cheyenne Mountain.\u00a0 The complex is literally inside of the mountain.\u00a0 Built by the Army Corps of Engineers, tunnels were dug into the granite mountain in order to protect the facility from any potential air attack.\u00a0 Today, April 15th, the site is celebrating its 50th anniversary of being fully operational.<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/a>
Picture of the North-Portal – Taken from NORAD’s Website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View from Cheyenne Mountain over Colorado Springs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View Looking North from Cheyenne Mountain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NORAD, North American Aerospace Defense, was created at the height of cold war to detect potential nuclear weapons being launched by Russia at the United States.\u00a0 These days,\u00a0their work is somewhat more difficult as they monitor for potential aircrafts that might be in the control of terrorists and not following predetermined flight paths, ready to scramble jets at a minutes notice.\u00a0 Today the facility also houses US Northern Command, USNORTHCOM, but most of the daily operations are run from Peterson Air Force Base, located in southern Colorado Springs.\u00a0 Every now and again, when terrorist threats are high, residents of Colorado Springs are reminded of the potential threat to the mostly quiet city as it is home to both NORAD and the Air Force Academy.\u00a0 We don’t have any pictures of the antennas on top of the mountain because, well, frankly it isn’t that interesting, you can imagine what a bunch of tall antennas look like.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View of the Prestigious Broadmoor Hotel from Cheyenne Mountain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another View Looking North<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Another<\/a>
Another View of Southern Colorado Springs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NORAD isn’t all seriousness and dread, however.\u00a0 NORAD also sponsors “NORAD tracks Santa” every year on Christmas Eve where children from around the world can call in or go online and find out the current location of Santa Claus as he flies around the world in his sleigh delivering gifts.\u00a0 In fact, for several years, we volunteered and answered phones, letting children know that Santa would be arriving soon and that they needed to go to bed soon.\u00a0 Legend has it that Sears Department Store mistakenly put in the number for NORAD in a local paper and when they started receiving calls, the staff decided to tell the children Santa’s location and the tradition was born.\u00a0 The truth is probably slightly different, but the end result is the same, children are thrilled with the thought that Santa is real and that our elite defense group is keeping their eyes on him, making sure he can safely deliver gifts.<\/p>\n

\"That's<\/a>
That’s Us Answering Calls from Children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Santa<\/a>
Santa Track Operations Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"More<\/a>
More People Answering Phones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Regardless of your thoughts on the military, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex is truly a unique and interesting piece of history hidden in the hillsides of Colorado Springs.\u00a0 The work that they do on a daily basis to keep us all safe should be complimented and appreciated.\u00a0 We wish them a happy anniversary for providing 50 years of service in the tunnels below the mountain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re not talking about mountain lions, hawks, or some other wild animal, we’re talking about NORAD and the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.\u00a0 If you ever drive through Colorado Springs, when you get to the south end of town, past Pikes Peak, you’ll likely notice a large group of antennas on the peaks of the southern-most mountains … <\/p>\n

Continue reading The Watchers in the Mountain<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89944846,"featured_media":2905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[180],"tags":[2450,45210,529462,594157732,413777,488,94119,436,200],"class_list":["post-2892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colorado","tag-air-force","tag-anniversary","tag-cheyenne-mountain","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-springs","tag-military","tag-norad","tag-photography","tag-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/imgp5707.jpg?fit=3008%2C2000&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6pbM5-KE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89944846"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2892"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2913,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2892\/revisions\/2913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}