"Our ports are our lifelines to the world, and this will help ensure that our economy and livelihood will never be threatened by an act of terrorism," he said.

The new team, one of 13 to be set up in the country, will be the best-trained and best-equipped unit of its kind in the area, capable of responding within minutes to potential terrorist attacks or other security threats, said Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson, commander of Coast Guard Pacific.

"There's nothing like it in the rest of the Coast Guard," he said.

With planned duties ranging from inspecting undersea locations to boarding suspected vessels from a helicopter, the unit was something that nearly everyone in the Coast Guard wanted to be part of, Johnson said.

The team members were picked in a competitive process and trained for more than five months at a Marine Corps base in North Carolina. Then, they were equipped with the best boats and other equipment, Johnson said.

When not responding to immediate threats in Hawai'i or elsewhere in the Pacific, the elite team members based at Sand Island will be patrolling local waters like never before, he said.

Among other duties, they will protect military load-out operations, enforce security zones, defend critical facilities and stop illegal activities such as drug trafficking or illegal immigrants.

"If necessary, we could load one of our boats onto a plane and take it anywhere in the Pacific within a matter of hours," Johnson said.

The teams were created as part of the Department of Homeland Security's strategy to protect waterways and ports since the 9/11 attacks and are officially designated with a 911 unit number (Honolulu's is 91107).

"We weren't fully prepared for Sept. 11 and we're still not fully prepared," Inouye said. "Harm's way is every which way, from the battlefield to our land and our waters, but this is another step to making sure it doesn't happen again."

Joshua Hauanio, a former Honolulu police officer, said he joined the Coast Guard Reserve after 9/11 because he "wanted to contribute something more to the nation" and applied for the Maritime Safety and Security team when he first heard about it.

"It's an awesome feeling," said Hauanio, who lives with his family in Kan'eohe. "The training really tested us to our limits and now we're definitely overflowing with pride and raring to go."