This Month in Marine Corps History:

• On August 1, 1944, Major General Harry Schmidt, commander of V Amphibious Corps, declared the island of Tinian secure and "the perfect amphibious operation of World War II."

• On August 3, 1950, eight Corsair fighter planes launched from the USS Sicily and carried out the first Marine aviation mission in the Korean War. The Corsairs were with VMF-214, more famously known as the "Black Sheep" squadron of World War II.

• On August 7, 1990, President George H.W. Bush ordered U.S. military troops and aircraft to Saudi Arabia as part of a multinational force to defend that nation against possible Iraqi invasion.

• On August 9, 1942, the 1st Engineer Battalion began work on an airstrip taken from Japanese forces on the island of Guadalcanal.

• On August 12, the first American airplane, a Navy PBY, landed on what by then was known as "Henderson Field".

• On August 17, 1942, the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion under Lietenant Colonel Evans F. Carlson landed on Makin Island.

• On August 21, 1968, Secretary of the Navy Paul R. Ignatius posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to Private First Class James Anderson Jr. for heroism in Vietnam, the first time an African-American Marine received this medal (and one of only five African-American Marines to ever be awarded this medal).

• On August 23, 1984, the last Marines to serve on peace-keeping duty in Lebanon arrived back in America.

• On August 24, 1814, Captain Samuel Miller led a detachment from Marine Barracks, Washington, in the Battle of Bladensburg in defense of the nation's capital.

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