Of the 32 presidents with military service, 31 have been commissioned officers, of whom five began their careers as regular officers (Jimmy Carter transferred to the Navy Reserve after five years in the Navy). There have been 13 presidents who held general officer rank (four regular officers, six militia officers, three volunteers).
Table of United States presidents by military rank
Served in the Virginia militia (1752–1758) during the French and Indian War.
Served as commander in chief of the Continental Army (1775–1783) during the Revolutionary War, with the rank of "General and Commander in Chief." Washington was a lieutenant general in the United States Army at his death.
Graduated West Point; served 1915–1952, resigned to run for president. Commission and rank restored by Congress in 1961. Commissioned but inactive until death. Served stateside during World War I and as Supreme Allied Commander during World War II.
Served at age 13 as a militia messenger during the Revolutionary War; was captured, becoming the only president to have been held as a prisoner of war (Washington had surrendered in the French and Indian War but was immediately paroled); served in the War of 1812, attaining the rank of major general and became a national hero after his success at the Battle of New Orleans.
Served in New Hampshire Militia from 1831 to 1847 and attained the rank of Colonel. Appointed to command 9th Infantry Regiment during Army expansion for Mexican–American War. Subsequently, promoted to Brigadier General and command of a brigade.
Joined militia as Judge Advocate of 2nd Brigade. Appointed Quartermaster General on Governor's staff, and later appointed Inspector General. Offered command of brigade raised in New York City, but Governor declined to allow him to leave state service. Left service in 1863 after new Governor appointed a successor.
Left militia to enter Virginia legislature. (Some sources claim Madison briefly assumed command of an artillery battery during the British assault on Washington during the War of 1812. If true, he would join Washington (Whiskey Rebellion) as having seen military service as commander-in-chief.)
Dates of service: 1776–1779. Wounded and nearly died in the Battle of Trenton. Returned to Virginia to recruit and lead a regiment as a militia Lieutenant Colonel, but the regiment was never raised. Commissioned as a Colonel during the British invasion of Virginia in 1780 to command the militia raised in response and act as liaison to the Continental Army in North Carolina. Appointed As Secretary of State during the War of 1812, scouted and deployed troops during the British invasion of Washington.
Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the New York National Guard's 8th Regiment in 1882. Company commander with rank of Captain when he resigned in 1886. Famous for charge up San Juan Hill. Posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. As ex-president, volunteered for service in World War I, but President Wilson declined.
Initially elected to command a company as a captain. Was mustered in and out of service during the Black Hawk War, going from Captain to Private and finishing his service in an independent spy company commanded by Captain Jacob Early. Honorably discharged without seeing combat. Also served in Stillman's Run and the Battle of Kellogg's Grove.
Served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve; served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, attaining the rank of captain. Was barred from combat because of poor eyesight. Narrated pre-flight training films under the Army Air Forces Motion Picture Unit.
Years of service: 1946–1961 (on active service 1946–1953). Graduated 59th in class of 1946 out of 820, United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Submarine service (Nuclear Specialist). Midshipman during World War II, served during the Korean War, but never sent to Korea
He performed Air National Guard duty as an F-102 pilot through April 1972, logging 336 hours, when he lost his authorization to be a pilot for failing to meet attendance and physical examination requirements.[24] He was later discharged eight months short of his six-year service requirement.[25]
Adams was 41 years old when the Revolutionary War broke out and did not serve in the field. In addition to his diplomatic duties during the war, he served an executive role in managing the distribution of ammunition and other supplies for the Continental Army and coordinating strategic communication among the generals of the various theaters. He is sometimes called the "de facto Secretary of War" during this time.
The U.S. did not fight any major wars during the time when Adams was of the usual age for military service (18 to 33) and the peacetime armed forces were very small during this time. It would not have been expected for a member of a prominent, wealthy family to serve unless a war broke out.
Van Buren was a member of the New York state senate when the War of 1812 began and was involved in the military justice system and on issues of military administration during the war.
Drafted during the Civil War, but paid $150 for a substitute (a legal option under the terms of the Enrollment Act of 1863, and his substitute survived the war).
The U.S. did not fight any major wars during the time when Wilson was of the usual age for military service (18 to 33) and the peacetime armed forces were very small during this time. Wilson was in his mid-40s and working as a professor at Princeton during the Spanish-American War. Moreover, his poor health (he had experienced a minor stroke in 1896),[26] would have disqualified him from any active service.
Served in a private humanitarian capacity as a civilian in Europe during World War I. He was also involved in the Siege of Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion as a guide for U.S. Marines.
Attempted to join the Navy during the Spanish–American War but was unable as he contracted measles. Served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1913 and through World War I; when the U.S. entered the war in 1917 he offered his resignation so that he could apply for a commission in the Navy, but was refused by the president. However he did visit the Western Front 1918.
Received a 2-A student draft deferment during the Vietnam War, and later registered for the draft. He received a high draft number, was not drafted and did not serve.
Attended New York Military Academy for secondary school, graduating in 1964. Received four draft deferments while attending college, then one for medical reasons after he was diagnosed with bone spurs on his heels.[27]
^As of 2021[update]. While there have been 46 presidencies, only 45 individuals have served as president: Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms and is numbered as both the 22nd and 24th U.S. president.
^Only person that received the rank while still on active service, John J. Pershing, only ever wore 4 silver stars like other 4-star generals.
Nicolas Hobbes. "US Presidents of Military Rank (in order of presidency)". Essential Militaria. Atlantic Books, an imprint of Grove Atlantic. 2003. ISBN 1-84354-229-3. p 59.
^Middlekauff, R. (2005). The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. Oxford University Press. p. 603. ISBN978-0-19-516247-9.
^Wood, G. S. (2009). "Chapter 7: The crisis of 1798-99". Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. Oxford University Press.
^Anderson, F. (2007). "Chapter 4: Washington steps onto the stage". Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766. Knopf.
^Fowler, W. M., Jr (2009). "Chapter 2: George Washington helps start a war". Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754-1763. Bloomsbury.
^Flexner, J. T. (1968). George Washington in the American Revolution. Little, Brown & Company. ISBN978-0-316-28595-7.
^Chernow, R. (2010). "Part Three: The General". Washington: A Life. Penguin.
^Crytzer, B. J. (2023). The Whiskey Rebellion: A Distilled History of an American Crisis. Westholme Publishing. ISBN978-1-59416-400-2.
^Hogeland, W. (2006). The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty. Scribner. ISBN978-0-7432-5490-8.
^Caro, Robert (1982). The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN0-394-49973-5. The most you can say about Lyndon Johnson and his Silver Star is that it is surely one of the most undeserved Silver Stars in history, because if you accept everything that he said, he was still in action for no more than 13 minutes and only as an observer. Men who flew many missions, brave men, never got a Silver Star.
^Ryder, Robert Randall "My War Chuck Downey Youngest Naval Aviator in WWII." Sea Classics, August 2013. "Off he went for training in Memphis, Tenn., before heading to Pensacola, Fla., for flight school, where he was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy on July 16, 1943. Downey was the tender age of 18 years, 11 months, and 14 days when he earned his wings."
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