WAPPAPELLO, Mo. -- Preliminary work has begun on a new entry control point training facility that will soon be available for National Guard Soldiers in Southeast Missouri to learn how to conduct vehicle and personnel searches.

At their March drill, Citizen-Soldiers with the 880th Engineer Haul Team out of Perryville, Mo., began transporting what will eventually be more than 500,000 tons of rock to build a gravel road that will lead to and from the entry control point, or ECP. The ECP is being constructed on a two-acre field at the Missouri National Guard's Wappapello Training Site.

The 880th, largely made up of heavy equipment operators, will be building the ECP -- performing more preliminary work at its April and May drills and doing the bulk of work during its annual training in June, said company commander 1st Lt. Matthew Knoderer.

"Basically, what we're doing right now is site prep," Knoderer said from the site last weekend. "We're preparing this site to build this entry control point, bringing in loads of rock from a nearby quarry. This is a good opportunity to give our Soldiers some valuable stick time on pieces of equipment like the bobcats and loaders. So not only are we going to have this valuable training facility, it's good for us to get down here and work in our various roles. It's a good team-building exercise for us."

An ECP is an area -- identical to ones being used by military men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan -- where Soldiers conduct search and seizure operations before allowing entry into a secure area, such as a forward operating base, said Maj. Kevin Compas, who oversees the Wappapello Training Site.

An ECP layout includes warning signs, an entry gate, personnel search area, vehicle search area, fighting positions, over-watch positions and barricades and speed bumps, Compas said. ECPs deter illegal movement, controls movement into an area of operation, protect those inside from terrorist activities, creates an effective roadblock, prevents smuggling of contraband and serves as an observation post.

"This training site is for the Soldiers to practice doing entry control points," Compas said. "It's a basic Soldier skill. It's something they're not able to set up 'real world' at their armories, so we're setting one up here. If they get deployed and sent overseas, it will already be a skill. They teach them this at mobilization stations, but if they train now, they'll have a leg up and a shorter learning curve prior to getting mobilized."

This is the first ECP to be available to Southeast Missouri Soldiers, though they already exist at Camp Clark, Camp Crowder and at the Guard's Macon Training Site.

"We anticipate it will be available for use in September or October," Compas said. "It looks to be a very well used training facility. Any unit will be able to use it. We're trying to get as much here as we can, so that it's another place for Soldiers to come and train rather than the armory.'

Staff Sgt. David McClure of the 880th worked on the ECPs as they were being built at Camps Clark, Crowder and at the Macon Training Site. Now he's working on his fourth such ECP at Wappapello.

"The ones we put in there at Camp Crowder and Camp Clark, they're being used big-time," McClure said. "These are just like the ones being used in Iraq and Afghanistan. So it's a good idea to train on them here because you never know. We've got to know how to operate an entry control point, because it's main purpose is to protect and save lives."

For more information about the Missouri National Guard, please call 1-800-GoGuard or visit www.moguard.com.

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For more information about this release, please contact Scott Moyers at 573-339-6264 or at scott.moyers1@us.army.mil