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

President	Service	Rank	Active Service
George W. Bush	Texas Air National Guard	First Lieutenant	none
Bill Clinton	None
George H.W. Bush	United States Navy	Lieutenant, Junior Grade	World War II
Ronald Reagan	United States Army	Captain	none
Jimmy Carter	United States Navy	Lieutenant Commander	none
Gerald Ford	United States Navy	Lieutenant Commander	World War II
Richard Nixon	United States Navy	Lieutenant Commander	World War II
Lyndon B. Johnson	United States Navy	Lieutenant Commander	World War II
John F. Kennedy	United States Navy	Lieutenant	World War II
Dwight D. Eisenhower	United States Army	General of the Army	World War II
Harry S. Truman[1]	US Army Reserve	Colonel	World War I
Franklin D. Roosevelt	None
Herbert Hoover	None
Calvin Coolidge	None
Warren G. Harding	None
Woodrow Wilson	None
William Howard Taft	None
Theodore Roosevelt	United States Army	Colonel	Spanish-American War
William McKinley	United States Army	Brevet Major	American Civil War
Benjamin Harrison	United States Army	Brigadier General	American Civil War
Grover Cleveland	None
Chester A. Arthur	New York State Militia	Captain	American Civil War
James Garfield	United States Army	Major General	American Civil War
Rutherford B. Hayes	United States Army	Major General	American Civil War
Ulysses S. Grant	United States Army	General of the Army	Mexican-American War, American Civil War
Andrew Johnson	United States Army	Brigadier General	American Civil War
Abraham Lincoln	Illinois Militia	Captain	Black Hawk War
James Buchanan	Pennsylvania Militia	Private	War of 1812
Franklin Pierce	United States Army	Colonel	Mexican-American War
Millard Fillmore	New York State Militia	Commander	American Civil War
Zachary Taylor	United States Army	Major General	War of 1812, Black Hawk War, Second Seminole War, Mexican-American War
James K. Polk	Tennessee Militia	Colonel	None
John Tyler	United States Army	Captain	War of 1812
William Henry Harrison	United States Army	Major General	Northwest Indian War, War of 1812
Martin Van Buren	None
Andrew Jackson	Continental Army, United States Army	General	American Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Creek War, First Seminole War
John Quincy Adams	None
James Monroe	Continental Army	Major	American Revolutionary War
James Madison	Virginia Militia	Colonel	American Revolutionary War
Thomas Jefferson	Virginia Militia	Commander	None
John Adams	None
George Washington[2]	Virginia Militia, Continental Army	General of the Armies	French and Indian War, American Revolutionary War

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Harry S Truman was as a Captain in the Missouri National Guard. After WW1, he tranferred to the US Army Reserve, where he attained the rank of colonel
2. ^ 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.

[edit] Presidential trivia lists

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Candidates	Democratic tickets · Republican tickets · Height · Lost their home state · Former presidents who ran again
Unsuccessful candidates	Received at least one electoral vote
Fictional	Fictional Presidents · Fictional Vice Presidents · Fictional Presidential candidates · Fictional presidential succession
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