function validateUSDate( strValue ) {
/************************************************
DESCRIPTION: Validates that a string contains only
    valid dates with 2 digit month, 2 digit day,
    4 digit year. Date separator can be ., -, or /.
    Uses combination of regular expressions and
    string parsing to validate date.
    Ex. mm/dd/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy or mm.dd.yyyy

PARAMETERS:
   strValue - String to be tested for validity

RETURNS:
   True if valid, otherwise false.

REMARKS:
   Avoids some of the limitations of the Date.parse()
   method such as the date separator character.
*************************************************/
  var objRegExp = /^\d{1,2}(\-|\/|\.)\d{1,2}\1\d{4}$/

  //check to see if in correct format
  if(!objRegExp.test(strValue))
    return false; //doesn't match pattern, bad date
  else{
    var strSeparator = strValue.substring(2,3) //find date separator
    var arrayDate = strValue.split(strSeparator); //split date into month, day, year
    //create a lookup for months not equal to Feb.
    var arrayLookup = { '01' : 31,'03' : 31, '04' : 30,'05' : 31,'06' : 30,'07' : 31,
                        '08' : 31,'09' : 30,'10' : 31,'11' : 30,'12' : 31}
    var intDay = parseInt(arrayDate[1]);

    //check if month value and day value agree
    if(arrayLookup[arrayDate[0]] != null) {
      if(intDay <= arrayLookup[arrayDate[0]] && intDay != 0)
        return true; //found in lookup table, good date
    }

    //check for February (bugfix 20050322)
    var intMonth = parseInt(arrayDate[0]);
    if (intMonth == 2) { 
       var intYear = parseInt(arrayDate[2]);
       if( ((intYear % 4 == 0 && intDay <= 29) || (intYear % 4 != 0 && intDay <=28)) && intDay !=0)
          return true; //Feb. had valid number of days
       }
  }
  return false; //any other values, bad date
}