CORTLANDT — Joe Ryan, president of the Living History Education Foundation, appeared with members of the 5th NY Regiment on June 25, 2026, at the town of Cortlandt's semiquincentennial celebration. The United States is preparing to celebrate its 250th birthday.

Ryan is 80 years old and a board member of the fifth New York regiment. He has spent more than 50 years conducting living history activities. In 1972, Ryan taught a middle school class about the American Revolutionary War and advised a dozen students to practice with muskets in the Blue Mountain middle school parking lot. The school's shop and home economics departments made the muskets used by his students.

"The celebration of the 250 is going to be local," Ryan said. "They can talk all they want in Washington, they can do whatever they want in Albany, but from our point of view, the cavalry is not coming."

Sherry Emershaw, president of the 24th Connecticut militia regiment, said her organization conducts similar activities daily. "We don't need a special anniversary to celebrate and educate people about the revolutionary war," Emershaw said. "As a result of that focus – you know, state, local, federal – we are in demand."

Kenneth Gavin, commanding officer of Spencer's Additional Continental Regiment and a public historian, works part-time as a tour guide. "There aren't a whole lot of us," Gavin said. "There's probably a few thousand, and we're on the eastern seaboard, but definitely not enough of us to do all the things that we're being asked to do."

Gavin described looking back at the American Revolution through a contemporary lens. "[Looking] back to the time of the American Revolution with 21st century eyes, we see so much imperfection," he said. "We talk about freedom, we talk about liberty, but who's really getting the freedom? Who's really getting the liberty? Are we really extending those freedoms and liberties to all people? And, of course, we're not."