casa personnel strength showed little growth from the time of activation of civil affairs holding and staging, area to the end of the year, five months later. the arrival of eight hundred seventy-six (876) navy enlisted men, plus additional army and navy officers, during the last days of the calendar year brought the total strength to one thousand one hundred twenty-four (1,124). considerable additional growth was presaged by the increasing numbers of army and navy officers in civil affairs training schools at six universities. this rapid increase of casa personnel had already put considerable pressure on the physical facilities assigned to casa by the ninth service command. as early as september 1944, commander dillard wrote, that "it is important that we immediately freeze space either here or at the presidio of san francisco in anticipation of future needs" continuing studies of space needs occupied the attention of the command staff. colonel jenkins, the executive officer, reported to the commanding officer, 14 november 1944, as follows, "on the basis that- we may not be able to have the presidio at monterrey and must stay here, i have again made a survey of east garrison of fort ord. just in case we cannot get additional space in the main garrison beyond what has now been allocated to us and cad (civil affairs division) insists that we must care for more than 1200 bodies, which as i wrote you is the maximum that our present space can accommodate. under these circumstances, east garrison would be our only alternative. it will take care of us, but i hope we will not have to go there." colonel harry p. jones, chief of personnel and training branch, cad (civil affairs division), replied to the above memorandum that the original authority to locate at fort ord provided for freezing space for 1625 men and officers. he added that a new request was being submitted, increasing the number to be provided for up to 3000, and including a paragraph to the effect that if fort ord, main garrison is not available, the presidio of monterey would be made available. the commanding officer stated, in response to colonel jones' letter, that, "there has never been any question of lack of accommodations at fort ord. the only question is, "where" in fort ord. ground forces are freezing, from washington a steadily increasing amount of space in main garrison. every indication pointed to a growing monopoly which, unchecked; would have split us between main garrison and east garrison or even pushed us over to east garrison." the civil affairs division, war department, then recommended that a survey be made of the facilities of camp beale in order to compare them with those of east garrison. in the memorandum reporting this comparison the commanding officer expressed his judgment that, "east garrison, while less desirable than main garrison or the presidio of monterey, is much more desirable in every respect than camp beale." he stated also that colonel jenkins, executive officer, and major dickey, chief of por branch of s-3, concurred with him in this judgment. colonel dillard maintained that, "it would be impossible to secure a better location for casa than the presidio of monterrey."the primary obstacle to be overcome in securing the presidio of monterey for casa was the fact that this permanent installation had been inactivated. the war department was experiencing considerable pressure to inactivate more installations, as the result of large scale shipments of personnel to overseas duty. to reactivate the presidio of monterrey was indeed a difficult task. the difficulties were eventually overcome, however, and colonel dillard was able to write on, 24 january 1945 that, "upon my return from a trip to san francisco and shoemaker i learned the welcome news that the presidio of monterrey had been procured for us." war department circular no. 4-0, dated 1 february 1945, and general order no 12 headquarters, ninth service command, 10 formally placed the presidio of monterey in active status, effective 18 january 1945 and established the civil affairs holding and staging area as an activity of the presidio, effective 10 february 1945.