Jame Ricardo (pronounced Jay-mee) doesn't look like someone involved in the war against terrorism. He's not a soldier or a police officer. He's a truck driver.

But now he's helping the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as part of its program called Highway Watch.

The department is training thousands of truckers, bus drivers and transportation professionals to be eyes and ears against terrorism when they're out on our roads doing their normal jobs.

The first training sessions were Thursday in Columbia. The people trained there will go back to their companies and school districts and train others.

Ricardo says the training made him aware of what to be looking for. "Like for instance if I was driving down this road that we take every morning and I see a tanker underneath a bridge with no driver in it or something, you know. That would be out of the ordinary and I would call the Highway Watch line and let them know about it." 

There's a special phone number for the Highway Watch participants to call to report suspicious people or activities, and each driver gets an ID number to use when they make a report.

Security expert Wayne Phillips conducted the training, which included showing videotape of some things to watch for and scenarios to include when they train other people.

One showed a man park his car on the side of the road, get out carrying a black bag, then go into some woods near a truck depot and start taking notes.

Another showed the same man stay in his car and take pictures of trucks coming and going.

Phillips gave the drivers plenty of things to watch for.

"A typical example--and it happened the other day as a matter of fact--they caught a guy in Charlotte, North Carolina who was taking pictures of the bottom of a bridge, instead of the bridge itself," Phillips says. "So that's not the kind of thing you would take home and show the family after a vacation. So those kinds of acts. People taking pictures of tunnels."

He told the drivers that terrorists must pick a target, case it, rehearse their attack, then carry it out. They can be seen--and the attack prevented--at any step along the way.

Ricardo says he never thought that, as a truck driver, he'd be involved in the war on terror. "It'll definitely save lives," he says, "if somebody can actually see something on the highway or even the regular roadways that don't look right."

The plan is to train about 5,000 transportation professionals by  March of next year. And it's not just drivers who are involved. Dispatchers and officer workers can also go through the training, since they could notice the purchase or delivery of dangerous materials.