data is STORED in the database as a date/time datattype - that shouldnt worry you
when you display the date in a form, or report you can specify the display format as several standard types
eg short date, (17/11/08), medium date (17 Feb 2008) or long date (17th February 2008)
the exact presentation format of these follows your regional settings
--------
if none of these are appropriate you can set your own format, where
ddd mmm etc is the day/month in text, and dd mm yyyy etc is in numbers
--------
so if you want Feb 17 2008
i think you can format mmm dd yyyy