planning for the establishment of a civil affairs holding and staging area is first mentioned in a memorandum of colonel boekel's, written 15 january 1944, in preparation for a discussion with colonel david marcus, relative to planning for civil affairs administration in the far east. it was colonel boekel's opinion that, "as soon as the american (army and navy) officers and enlisted men personnel are trained, they should be organized into teams or provisional units with appropriate t/o's (tables of organization) and moved to hawaii for final integration with the theater headquarters planning staff. the facilities of the university of hawaii may be available. there the personnel should be broken up into teams for special areas and be ready to take over any thereof as the military situation requires. if there is to be british participation, the amalgamation thereof with the americans should take place in hawaii or the final theater school and staging area. the asiatic theater commander has already stated that for logistical and other reasons, the staff could not be trained in india and introduced into japan via the himalayan hump; nor over the burma road." in furtherance of the plan to establish the holding and staging area in hawaii, colonel boekel conferred with captain mercer- secretary to admiral nimitz, 10 march 1944. captain mercer stated that the navy would be opposed to the immediate reception and quartering of any large number of civil affairs officers in hawaii, because of the paucity of shipping space, subsistence and quarters. he indicated, however, that the navy would give a sympathetic reception to the 'survey' committee which is to go to hawaii from civil affairs division and captain pence's office, particularly if the proposal is based upon a progressive transfer starting with a small number on or about 1 june and continuing through the ensuing period of cats (civil affairs training schools). colonel boekel also reported that during the previous week he had a conference with captain moore of lt. general richardson's staff. captain moore indicated that there would be no difficulty in transferring the planning section and successive increments of cats (civil affairs training schools) to hawaii. colonel boekel went to hawaii in may 1944 to confer directly with admiral chester w. nimitz, commander of the pacific fleet and pacific ocean areas, and with lt. general richardson, commanding general, united states army forces, central pacific area concerning the site of the holding and staging area about to be established. the decision arrived at as a result of this conference was that it would be impractical to locate the holding and staging area in hawaii. the search for a site was then transferred to the west coast of continental united states. a committee from washington, composed of colonel boekel, colonel harry jones, chief of the personnel and training branch, civil affairs division, and colonel h. e. robison, of the provost marshal general's office, visited several potential sites in california. they inspected camp mcquaide at santa cruz; the presidio of san francisco; camp beale, at sacramento; and fort ord, at monterey. their choice fell upon the last named site. the formal establishment of the holding and staging area is referred to in a joint chiefs of staff document.