Six Soldiers from the Kentucky National Guard's 2-138th Forward Support Company assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, recently shared best entry control point practices with La Force Armee de Djibouti (FAD) at FAD Poste de Loyada, near the Somalia border.

"This event is about strengthening our partner nation's capability and capacities," said U.S. Army Maj. Michael Woodson, 2-138th Field Artillery Regiment military-to-military coordinator. "We're helping to build up their border security, ECPs -- and assisting them."

By and large, this marked the first time FAD soldiers have received information about the topics covered in the event. Overall, topics included ECP procedures, personnel search procedures, first aid and border patrol security -- both on foot and in a vehicle.

"The importance of the training is to enforce the territory security in order to prevent contraband coming into Djibouti," said Sgt. Omar Ibrahim Ahmed, FAD. "This training will help us better manage traffic, watch people and enforce security."

In all, Djibouti has six ECPs along the Somalia border, all of which are accessible either by foot or by vehicle.

"Everything we shared was to raise their awareness at the check points," said U.S. Army 1st Lt. Michael Hallas, 2-138th FSC mission commander.

"This event was the piece we were missing and we are pretty excited with what we learned," said Ahmed.

As tends to happen, not all of the FAD soldiers who keep the borders safe were able to attend the military-to-military engagement.

"We plan to send elements to the other points so they can train the rest of the guys," said Ahmed.

In addition, the 2-138th FSC provided necessary equipment to run an effective ECP -- to include search wands, barriers, and safety cones. At the conclusion of the event, the equipment remained behind so the FAD can continue using the techniques learned.

"We did not have barriers like the ones the U.S. provided and with the cooperation of the U.S. military we have the barriers now," said Ahmed.

For his part, Ahmed thought the event was interesting and helpful for all the FAD soldiers.

"I'm really proud of the soldiers working with the U.S. Army and us working with them to enhance our relationships and militaries, and we look forward to doing this more," said Ahmed.