The Military Presidents

[A Fourth of July re-post, originally written in 2012, that I still find fascinating …]

Since I’ve been reading a lot of war literature these past ten months (Civil War, Mexican War, World War II, a bit of World War I), I thought it might be interesting to find out which of our presidents served in uniform this 4^th of July.

Of the 43 men who attained the Oval Office (Grover Cleveland is counted as both the 22^nd and 24^th President, the only man to have two non-consecutive terms), how many do you think served in our military?

Hmm?

My first uneducated guess was probably about a quarter.  Maybe a little more.  At least twelve, maybe as much as fifteen.  Off the top of my head I could name the obvious ones: George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, Zachary Taylor (he was obvious from my Mexican War reading).  And I knew a slew had some military experience, like Bush Sr, Kennedy, Lincoln.  That’s six.  So I upped it two, two-and-a-half times.

How did I do?

Poorly.

Of the 43 men who became President of the United States, 31 served in the military.  That’s 72 percent.  A lot more than my maximum guess of 35 percent.

Want a ranking?  Okay.

We’ve had three Generals of the Army become President –

George Washington

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Ulysses S. Grant

They’re followed by five Major Generals –

Andrew Jackson

William Harrison

Zachary Taylor

Rutherford B. Hayes

James Garfield (hey, he also came up with a proof for the Pythagorean theorem!)

Next comes four Brigadier Generals –

Franklin Pierce

Andrew Johnson

Chester Arthur

Benjamin Harrison

Five Colonels –

Thomas Jefferson

James Madison

James Polk

Theodore Roosevelt

Harry S Truman

Two Commanders in the Navy –

Lyndon B. Johnson

Richard Nixon

Four Majors / Lieutenant Commanders –

James Monroe

William McKinley

Gerald Ford

Millard Fillmore

Three Captains –

John Tyler

Abraham Lincoln

Ronald Reagan

Two Lieutenants and two First Lieutenants –

John F. Kennedy

Jimmy Carter

George H. Bush

George W. Bush

And, finally, one private –

James Buchanan

Isn’t that interesting?  I had no idea.  This Fourth of July, let’s remember to thank them all for their service to this wonderful, great country of ours!