February 29 in A.A. History

In 1940, [some sources say 28 Feb, but all sources agree it was Thursday and Thursday was the 29^th] A.A. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, held its initial organizational meeting in the room of James McCready “Mac” H.^* [near right] at 2209 Delancey Place.
    A freelance writer, he was lodging at the home of Horace P. and Margaret C. Conard. Jimmy B. [above, center right], sober two years, had moved to Philadelphia from New York City on February 13. On the 17th, he had contacted Charles “Charlie” B., an Oxford Grouper whom he had met once at a New York meeting two years earlier. Deciding together that they wanted to establish an A.A. group in Philadelphia, they next had spoken with two fellow alcoholics from Charlie’s Oxford Group, William Edmund “Ed” P. and Richard Henry Bayard B., Jr., who were “all for it.”
    Meanwhile, the Alcoholic Foundation office in New York City had forwarded a letter of inquiry from one George I. “Bud” S., whom Jimmy and Mac had then contacted. A desperately sick alcoholic, George had sobered up on his own the year before after reading the article “Alcoholics and God” in Liberty magazine in late 1939; until now he had been considered a “loner.”
    Mac, Jimmy, Charlie, Ed, Bayard, and George and were at this first meeting; so was John Henry Fitzhugh “Fitz” M. [above, far right], visiting from New York City, making a total of seven. They decided to start an A.A. group in Philadelphia, and to hold the first meeting on the following Thursday at George’s house.

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^* James McCready H. had a son, James H. McCready, Jr. [left]. He was a U.S. Navy pilot, born on October 22, 1923i n Pennsylvania. He joined the Navy in 1944 and was assigned to the escort carrier USS Natoma Bay. After completing his assignment, he was scheduled to rotate back to the U.S., but he volunteered for one more flight. On March 3, 1945, during a mission near Iwo Jima, Huston's Corsair fighter plane was hit by Japanese anti-aircraft fire. His plane crashed into the ocean, and he was killed in action.

    Fifty-three years later, on April 10, 1998, James Leininger [right] was born in San Francisco. At around 2½ years old, James began having recurring nightmares about being trapped in a burning plane that was crashing. His actions mimicked those of someone trying to escape, as if he were trapped in a box and kicking his way out. By age 3, James started drawing pictures of fighter jets and battles, signing them as “James 3,” even though he had not yet learned to write his name. He could also list the names of his “fellow pilots” and the name of the ship his jet took off from. He made many statements that seemed to match details of James H., Jr.'s life, just a few of which included:
    • being shot down in a plane near Iwo Jima,
    • being based on a ship named Natoma, and
    • having a friend named Jack Larsen.

James Leininger’s parents, Bruce and Andrea, were mystified by their son’s behavior and began investigating these claims. Eventually, they found numerous correlations with James H., Jr.'s life. They wrote a book titled Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot about their family’s experiences.

February 28 in A.A. History

In 1937, ^*Dick S. [below, near right] regained consciousness in Akron City Hospital after a binge. He later learned that his younger brother Paul [below, middle right], who had been sober for nearly eight months, had given him 5½ ounces of paraldehyde—more than twice the dosage recommended by Dr. Bob [below, far right]. Dick would remain sober for the rest of his life.
    His story, “The Car Smasher,” appeared in the first edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, and outlined the four-step program he recommended:

First: Have a real desire to quit.
Second: Admit you can’t. (This is the hardest.)
Third: Ask for His ever-present help.
Fourth: Accept and acknowledge this help.

He later rewrote his story, which was retitled “He Had To Be Shown,” for the second and third editions of the Big Book.

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^* “The Car Smasher” begins with, “During the first week of March 1937,… I ended 20 years of a life made practically useless [by drinking].” In contrast, the second-to-last paragraph of “He Had To Be Shown” states, “On Sunday when I came to, it was a bad, wet, snowy day in February 1937…”. Weather records for Akron in February 1937 indicate that temperature ranges were likely too high and precipitation too low for any Sunday to be described as “a bad, wet, snowy day,” except for the 28th. Therefore, I conclude that the Sunday Paul referred to in “He Had To Be Shown” must have been the 28th.

In 1942, the Columbus (Ohio) Group split into two groups. Fourteen members left to establish the Central Group at the Odd Fellows Temple, located at 24 W. Goodale St. This new group decided to install a phone and set up an office at the temple for Twelfth Step calls. Additionally, the Central Group was responsible for printing one of the earliest A.A. newsletters.

In 1942, Ruth Hock [far left] left the New York City Alcoholic Foundation office to marry Phil Crocelius; Margaret “Bobbie” B. [near left] took her place as National Secretary, A.A.’s second and last. Bobbie had been a professional dancer in the U.S. and Europe during the 1920s and, as Ruth noted, in the fashion of the 1940s, wore “tiny little hats and went tripping along in her high heels, but was a fantastic communicator.”

In 1947, the Naugatuck (Connecticut) Daily News reported that Edward McDermott, the executive director of Easy Acres in Newtown, a state sanitarium for neurotics, spoke at a meeting of the Waterbury Junior Club on the topic of “Alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous.”