SPC Christopher Brinton from the 2-18th Field Artillery Regiment, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, looks out the window while sitting on a bus waiting to leave for a 10-day French Tactical Desert Survival Training Course on May 4, 2008, during his deployment to Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, located at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti. 
 
Forty U.S. Military members stationed at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, volunteered for the 10- day course taught by French Marines from the 5th Regiment Overseas Infantry. The training was held in the desert outside Djibouti City, where students were trained in two phases. The first phase was five days of classes teaching basic desert survival and tactical training, and the second was putting their learned skills to the test. 
 
During the course, the students walked over 90 kilometers in total with only nine liters of water a day, one French MRE a day and a few goats. Seven U.S. service members fell out due to exhaustion and dehydration, one of which was medically evacuated. Two French service members were medically evacuated as well due to exhaustion and dehydration.