Jump to content

Presidents that served.


Sabrejet
 Share

Recommended Posts

Given that today is a "significant" one for the American people, I was prompted to do a little on-line research on American Presidents past/present. As you will see from the link below, quite a high percentage of them once served in some capacity in the military. I think my "favourite" would have to be "Ike" as he became your 34th President just a couple of weeks after my birth!

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States_by_military_service

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Arguably, some of your greatest Presidents had a military background going right back to George Washington himself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have seen a few quotes from some of Lyndon Johnsons' contemporaries that LBJ's Silver Star was "one of the most undeserved in history". I dont know much about LBJ but I guess there was/is some questions about the circumstances of the events that earned him the award.

 

Harry Truman...give em hell Harry. I'd like to learn more about his service in WWI, I know he was in the FA of the 35th Division.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Arguably, some of your greatest Presidents had a military background going right back to George Washington himself.

 

Also some of the worst.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Read; "The Soldier From Independence", A Military Biography of Harry Truman, by D.M. Giangreco. Good account of his service in the great war.

 

Read also

THE COLLAPSE AT MEUSE-ARGONNE ( By Robert H Ferrell)

The Failure of the Missouri- Kansas Division ( 35th Division).

This Division has been sent to the slaughterhouse, unprepared, without any combat experience (exception made of some training weeks in a very quite sector in upper ALSACE- Gerardmer ) where I had some skying some years ago ,

Not a single engagement during the Saint Mihiel offensive (Division kept in reserve) , and last but not least , they were under the command of a VERY uncompetent leader ( Peter E Traub) and of other (recently arrived ) Army officers who replaced the USNG ones .

A later ( 1919 -1920) Congressional enquiry about the case did not succeed to establish any responsability for this faillure.

 

They nevertheless are the HEROES OF THE ARGONNE for me, since I spent a lot of time in the MONTREBEAU wood and in the EXERMONT area.

One of my favorite WWI division anyway.

 

TEUFELHUND

Link to comment
Share on other sites

vostoktrading

Ian,

George Washington was sort of in the British Army before he served in the US Army.

In his early 20's he served in the Virginia Militia and was attached to British General Braddock's disastrous expedition against the French in 1755.

I think this expedition had two far reaching lessons for the American Militiamen involved. It gave them experience working within a large British unit and it showed that a large British unit could be beaten by a few Frenchmen and some native Americans fighting in an unconventional way.

post-7885-0-83997500-1352229873.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

vostoktrading

George H.W. Bush. Father of "W" above. He was the 41st President. He served in WW2 as a Navy pilot, flying TBM Avenger torpedo bombers. He was shot down near Chichijima September 1944. Here is a picture of him being picked up by a US submarine from that action. He was also a pretty good ball player.

post-7885-0-62682800-1352233526.jpg

post-7885-0-95537300-1352233561.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kids at school asked me who I was voting for. I told them Ike and Truman.

 

 

Would that be Ike and Tina Truman? :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...