Child's Play

Greg Dicum

Photo By Dwight Eschliman

September/October 2003 Issue

Ever since Ronald Reagan first embraced the idea of missile defense, the "Star Wars" program has rocket-fueled the Pentagon's little-boy daydreams. And so it seems appropriate that the Missile Defense Agency has produced a children's coloring book to celebrate its achievements. Unfortunately, shooting down actual missiles in space—the program's main goal—is not one of them. As the agency helpfully explains on its website, that's "very difficult to accomplish" and, to demonstrate how difficult, it suggests that you try to knock down a ball thrown to you with another ball.

Distributed at a fair honoring government workers in Washington, D.C., the coloring book is intended to teach children about the Missile Defense Agency's mission. After opening with a portrait of Reagan, the 11-page booklet shows some of the really cool stuff that the Missile Defense Agency buys with its $9 billion annual budget: the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, the Theater High Altitude Area Defense Interceptor, and, as expertly colored by Jeremy Morgan, age five, the Airborne Laser.