at the time of the arrival of the advance party at fort ord, 15 july 1944, there was still some uncertainty as to which buildings would be assigned to casa. after an inspection of the available buildings in the 17ac area, as well as other available troop quarters, a message was sent to the ninth service command at fort douglas, and confirmation received, of the assignment to casa of the wac (warfare area commander) area. this consisted of the administration building, a mess hall and three barracks. one additional building was still occupied by wac personnel. the space assigned as regarded as adequate for the initial group of about one hundred officers and twenty-eight enlisted men on a single-cot basis, and provided, in addition a room for assembly, research and conference purposes. the civil affairs staging area, fort ord, california, was activated 15 july 1944, by casa general order no 1, which also announced colonel boekel's assumption of command as acting commanding officer.