Military Service by Branch

  • Sixteen presidents served in the army (either the Continental Army, the U.S. Army, or the U.S. Army Reserves).
  • Fourteen presidents did not serve in the military.
  • Two presidents held the rank of General of the Army - Grant and Eisenhower. Washington was posthumously awarded the rank in 1976.
  • Kennedy was the first naval officer to be elected president.

Rank#President# Presidents
1Army (Continental, U.S., U.S. Reserve)16
1George Washington
5James Monroe
7Andrew Jackson
9William Henry Harrison
12Zachary Taylor
14Franklin Pierce
17Andrew Johnson
18Ulysses S. Grant
19Rutherford B. Hayes
20James A. Garfield
23Benjamin Harrison
25William McKinley
26Theodore Roosevelt
33Harry S. Truman
34Dwight D. Eisenhower
40Ronald Reagan
2State Militia10
1George Washington (VA)
3Thomas Jefferson (VA)
4James Madison (VA)
7Andrew Jackson (TN)
10John Tyler (VA)
11James K. Polk (NY)
13Millard Fillmore (NY)
15James Buchanan (PA)
16Abraham Lincoln (IL)
21Chester A. Arthur (NY)
3Navy (U.S., U.S. Reserve)6
35John F. Kennedy
36Lyndon B. Johnson
37Richard M. Nixon
38Gerald R. Ford
39Jimmy Carter
41George H. W. Bush
4National Guard2
33Harry S. Truman (MO Army)
43George W. Bush (TX Air)
-None14
2John Adams
6John Quincy Adams
8Martin Van Buren
22 & 24Grover Cleveland
27William H. Taft
28Woodrow Wilson
29Warren G. Harding
30Calvin Coolidge
31Herbert Hoover
32Franklin D. Roosevelt
42Bill Clinton
44Barack Obama
45Donald J. Trump
46Joe Biden

Return to Presidential Facts