List of United States Presidents by military service
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The United States Constitution names the President of the United States the commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces. However, previous service in the military is not a pre-requisite for the position of president. The following list outlines the military service (or lack) of each president before becoming the commander in chief.
See also: List of U.S. Presidents by military rank
[edit] Notes
- George Washington was posthumously appointed General of the Armies of the United States on July 4, 1976, at which time Congress specified that he would forever be considered the highest ranking military officer of the United States. Where he would rank otherwise is debatable. While promoted to a lieutenant general only a year before his death, he was the most senior officer and the only lieutenant general in the army. The same is true of Ulysses S. Grant, who was the second person to permanently hold this rank on March 2, 1864. (Winfield Scott was a brevet lieutenant general for his service in the Mexican-American War.) All Civil War generals in the Union Army until that time (including generals-in-chief George B. McClellan and Henry W. Halleck) were ranked major general. Grant's appointment was done with caution; if he performed poorly as commander of all the armies of the United States, it would be difficult to remove and replace him with another—as had been done with previous commanders in the Civil War—as all other generals would be outranked by Grant. George Washington was referred to as "commander in chief" of the Continental Army, a title that since the adoption of the constitution has been reserved for the (civilian) President alone.
2 Harry S Truman famously served as a Captain in the Missouri National Guard. After WW1, he tranferred to the US Army Reserve, where he attained the rank of colonel.
[edit] Presidential trivia lists
Lists of Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States
