Presidential Military Experience
Presidents who served in wars
· George Washington - Commander in Chief of Continental Army during the American Revolution.
· James Monroe - served in American Revolution
· Andrew Jackson - War of 1812, First Seminole War
· William Henry Harrison - Battle of Tippecanoe, Indian wars in the NW territory, War of 1812
· John Tyler - War of 1812
· Zachary Taylor - War of 1812, Black Hawk, Second Seminole, and Mexican wars
· Franklin Pierce - Mexican War
· James Buchanan - War of 1812
· Abraham Lincoln - Black Hawk War
· Andrew Johnson - Civil War
· Ulysses Grant - Mexican War, Civil War
· Rutherford Hayes - Civil War
· James Garfield - Civil War
· Chester Arthur - Civil War
· Benjamin Harrison - Civil War
· William McKinley - Civil War
· Theodore Roosevelt - Spanish-American War
· Harry Truman - WWI
· Dwight Eisenhower - WWII General
· John Kennedy - WWII
· Lyndon Johnson - WWII
· Richard Nixon - WWII
· Gerald Ford - WWII
· George Bush - WWII
Presidents who were in the military but who saw no action
· James Madison
· James Polk
· Millard Fillmore
· Jimmy Carter
· Ronald Reagan - kept out of combat due to bad eyesight
· George W. Bush
Presidents with no military experience
· John Adams
· Thomas Jefferson
· John Quincy Adams
· Martin Van Buren
· Grover Cleveland
· William Taft
· Woodrow Wilson
· Warren Harding
· Calvin Coolidge
· Herbert Hoover
· Franklin Roosevelt
· Bill Clinton
Barack Obama
Presidents during wartime
· George Washington: War with Native Americans in Ohio
· Thomas Jefferson: Tripolitan War, 1800-1805, against the Barbary pirates
· James Madison - War of 1812, 1812-1814, against the British
· James Monroe - First Seminole War, 1817-1818
· Andrew Jackson - Black Hawk War, 1832
· Martin Van Buren - Aroostook War, 1839; Second Seminole War - ended 1842
· William Henry Harrison - Second Seminole War - ended 1842
· John Tyler - Second Seminole War - ended 1842
· James Polk - Mexican War
· James Buchanan - beginning of the Civil War
· Abraham Lincoln - Civil War, 1861-1865
· William McKinley - Spanish-American War, 1898; Boxer Rebellion, 1899-1900
· Woodrow Wilson - WWI, 1914-1918
· Warren Harding - formally concluded WWI
· Franklin Roosevelt - WWII, 1941-1945
· Harry Truman - conclusion of WWII, Korean War - 1950-1953
· Dwight Eisenhower - conclusion of Korean War
· John Kennedy - Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1961; beginning of Vietnam War
· Lyndon Johnson - Vietnam War, Dominican Republic, 1965
· Richard Nixon - Vietnam War
· Ronald Reagan - Grenada Invasion, 1983
· George Bush - Invasion of Panama, 1989-1990; Persian Gulf War, 1990-1991
· George W. Bush - War against the Taliban, Iraq, 2001 to present.
Barack Obama-War against the Taliban, Iraq, 2009 to present.
Presidents who did not preside over war during their terms
· John Adams
· John Quincy Adams
· Zachary Taylor
· Millard Fillmore
· Franklin Pierce
· Andrew Johnson
· Ulysses Grant
· James Garfield
· Chester Arthur
· Grover Cleveland
· Theodore Roosevelt
· William Taft
· Calvin Coolidge
· Herbert Hoover
· Jimmy Carter