[Season 9: All Episode Talk]

1 hour ago, Shannon L. said:

It's time to show my ignorance of history with this question:  I thought there were black soldiers in the civil war.  Didn't they say something about him identifying as white so that he could sign up because there were no black soldiers?  Did I miss something?

I thought she was great and the story was fascinating, but a little disjointed.  I also love Steve Tyler.  He seems genuine and sincere-a really nice guy who just loves life--and music! 

There were a lot of black soldiers in the Civil War but they served in the US Colored Troops, not in the state regiments. So he probobly would not have been able to enlist in the New York regiments.

[Talking Dead: Because Chris Hardwick Wants to Beat Ryan Seacrest]

The actor who plays Chris was on last week's Agents of Shield, for a quick scene. He was in a wheelchair with the Ghost Rider. Maybe he has a new gig?

[Season 8: All Episodes Talk]

It happened even earlier as well. I recently found out I had a relative kidnapped in 1704 (1703?) from Deerfield, Massachusetts. Native Americans had allied with French in Quebec. Deerfield was raided by natives, and roughly 100 English settlers were made to walk north to the Montreal area in winter. Many died on the trek, but children and young adults that made it were taken in either by native or Quebecois families. That's how my relative ended up on my French-Canadian family tree. Caroline Cooney wrote a young adult novel that fictionalized a true person, called "The ransom of Mercy Carter", which detailed the cultural/loyalty struggle that kidnapped Mercy had as a ~10 year old.

My husband's ancestor was Mercy Carter's brother John. Quite a fascinating story, and the French Canadian  Catholic records are wonderful. I spent a lot of time researching the Carter/Chartier family.

[S12.E08: Semper Fortis]

The Army, Air Force and Navy consolidated medical training a few years ago. They are all trained at Ft. Sam Houston. My son went through corpsman A school there about 3 years ago. I believe the Army and Air Force training includes the testing necessary for civilian certification. The Navy doesn't. So even though my son was the equivilant of a basic EMT he could not work as one, or use his medial training in the civilian world. Anna would have had more training than A school as she was a combat medic, probably went to C school and training with the Marines. My son served 6 years in the Navy and was discharged earlier this year and is now attending college.