The Maine Memorial Association has issued an open invitation to Iwo Jima survivors to attend a luncheon and commemorative memorial service marking the 66th anniversary of the 36-day bloody battle for the Pacific island in the waning days of World War II.

The luncheon and memorial program are scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 23 at 11:30 a.m. in the association’s 12-story hotel-club at 609 Sutter St. in San Francisco. The cost is $30 per person: The event is free for Iwo Jima veterans and their wives.

The luncheon, traditional commemorative honors and reception salutes the 6,821 Marines and fellow servicemen killed in the fighting. Tribute will also be paid to the more than 20,000 Iwo Jima leathernecks and sailors wounded in the battle, principally from the 3d, 4th and 5th Marine divisions.

Richard Burress, the event’s guest of honor and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, was a newly commissioned Marine second lieutenant at the time of the Iwo Jima landings. He joined the fighting as a replacement platoon leader in B Company, 23d Marines, 4th Marine Division.

Before joining the Hoover Institution in 1973, Burress was chairman of the U.S. Renegotiation Board. He also served as a deputy counsel to President Richard Nixon and assistant to President Gerald Ford.

Reservations for the event may be made by calling MacKenzie Jalocbck at 415-673-6672, ext. 215.