At least the policy has changed. The importance of the U.S. Coast Guard, long given short shrift among our nation's security forces, was thrown into sharp focus by the world-changing events of Sept. 11, 2001.

As part of the intensified campaign to armor the homeland against future attack, the Coast Guard was tapped for badly needed expansion projects and general upgrades.

The policy just isn't becoming a reality fast enough.

True, in December the Coast Guard commissioned a 76-member Maritime Safety and Security Team, a fast-deployment unit that boosted the staffing and boats with firepower at Ford Island. As one of 13 to be set up in the country, the team was designed to respond within minutes to potential terrorist attacks or other threats.

Now it's time — long past time — to pick up the pace again.

Military commanders certainly realize that the Hono-lulu fleet, tasked to guard against security breaches in distant waters, is aging badly. For example, the Jarvis, the cutter that patrols around Alaska and the Western Pacific, was built in 1970 and went into service two years later. Naturally, it's a patchwork quilt of maintenance problems.

It's one of two 378-foot cutters based here and part of the Coast Guard's "deep-water" assets slated for replacement over the next 20 years. That long-term program calls for $20 billion to be spent, but under a White House plan, the upgrade could take five years longer.

This is a discouraging prospect. Military and elected officials have correctly concluded that the timetable for replacement needs to be accelerated, not drawn out any further.

America has heaped a heavy burden onto the Coast Guard. Its mission now encompasses everything from its well-established role in search and rescue and law enforcement to the more recent function as a lookout scouring the ports and waterways for terrorist threats.

Struggling with vessels and equipment that are not equal to the task, the crews find themselves working doubly hard, spending a disproportionate wealth of time and energy on maintenance.

The Coast Guard boasts a proud tradition and is an essential element in America's security arsenal. It's been given this critical job; let's give it what it needs to fulfill its potential.