Charleston's Navy Base was shut down as a military installation a dozen years ago, before I arrived in town, but it will forever be known as the navy base. Doesn't matter what's built there in the future; you don't blot out the U.S. Navy.

In the time the base was mothballed, it has seen a number of uses -- headquarters for the local Americorps, the Border Patrol Academy, a handful of small shipping interests, and a place for Coast Guard cutters. Now, the big thing is Homeland Security.

Those "in the program" call it FLETC (flett-see), the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. It's basically a school for all those agencies that now fit under the not-so-tidy umbrella of the Homeland Security Department. And the base, forever in a state of flux since the Navy left, is undergoing further changes.

I caught wind of the latest run of these changes about a year ago when a tall fence was erected around the training center. It's got a wrought-iron look, and each upright is topped with a sharp spike -- the kind that screams out, don't even think of scaling this one unless it's your life's ambition to be a male soprano. I call it the "San Diego Fence" because it looks like something strung along the Mexico-US border -- except this fence doesn't have gaping holes in it, or a gazillion mystery tunnels under it. Yet.

After dropping off a few passengers at FLETC not long ago, I was spending a few minutes talking with one of the guards. Nice fellow, opinionated, my kind of person. "Yeah, we call it T.A.S.," he told me. "Tight Assed Security."

Since the fence was erected, security has been built up all the more. There's a guard station now, if I want to get to FLETC. All incoming vehicles are now subject to search unless the driver shows a pass. These passes are one-time-only, and you pick them up at the visitors center. Actually, it's more of a pain than anything. Nearly all of my passengers prefer to be dropped off at the gate so they don't have to watch my cab get inspected on their dime.

Makes it especially difficult because you have to go through that gate to go to the Cooper River Marina, where people tie up their boats. Now, the guy at the gate will wave me by if I'm going to the marina, but that's still a gigantic pain in the ass and is likely to intimidate a lot of boaters out of using that facility. Well, the Cooper River Marina is also within sight of the Kinder-Morgan coal terminal (where there is talk of expansion), and boaters are complaining of all the coal dust that gets on their boats. So it looks like Charleston County Parks and Recreation, which runs the Cooper River Marina, had better plan on giving away boat slips if they expect to have any business.

This also begs the question of how all this is going to work when the new on-paper container terminal is built. Allegedly, the new Navy Base terminal will have its own roads, freeway off-ramps and everything, but I know this is going to create some security headaches. That's a lot of damned trucks, train cars, longshoremen, and taxicabs going into those terminals all the time. Sure, the ports are probably the weakest link in our Homeland Security chain, but the thought of all port traffic going through that gate is a little too much to think about.

Not long ago, port security was tightened to the point where I need a pass to go into the terminals. Totally a joke, by the way. I fill out a form, give 'em $20, smile for the camera, and there's my pass. For a Jackson they have assurance that I am not a terrorist.

Well, security is provided by the government here, so none of this should be surprising.