Lt. James Monroe, hero of RevWar and 5th POTUS
The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...
Lots of interesting POTUS facts herein...hope you Freepers like this one
And thank you, OKers!
Posted on 02/19/2010 6:58:22 AM PST by Pharmboy
— In November 2008, the United States elected just its 44th president. It wasn’t until I started researching this column I found the full extent of military influence on our nation’s highest office.
Fully 31 of the 44 men who have taken the oath of office to the highest post in the land have served in some capacity in this nation’s military.
Of the 31 who have donned either an Army, Navy, Guard or militia uniform, 12 achieved the rank of general during their term in service.
Of course, none will ever be higher ranked than our first president — Gen. George Washington.
Congress saw to that on our 200th anniversary, declaring him General of the Armies of the United States on July 4, 1976, stating further no officer of the Unites States Army will ever outrank Lt. Gen. George Washington.
Other generals include Dwight Eisenhower, Ulysses Grant, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur and Benjamin Harrison.
Five of our presidents served as colonels, including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Polk, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
Lesser officers, from Navy commanders down through majors, captains and lieutenants included Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, James Monroe, William McKinley, Gerald Ford, Millard Fillmore, John Tyler, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
The only Army private to ever have the distinction of being elected president of the United States was James Buchanan. Franklin Pierce entered the Army as a private, but came out a brigadier general.
Of the 31 presidents with time in military service, 19 of them actually saw combat. And 14 of them, including Washington, Monroe, Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Taylor, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, McKinley, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and George H.W. Bush, were in harms way more than once, and in fact throughout most of their military careers.
Three future presidents were wounded in battle — Continental Army Maj. James Monroe, wounded at the Battle of Trenton; Army Lt. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, wounded at the Battle of South Mountain during the Civil War; and Navy Lt. JG John F. Kennedy, wounded when his famous motor torpedo boat PT-109 was cut in half by a Japanese destroyer near the Solomon Islands during World War II.
One president — Andy Jackson — actually was a prisoner of war during the American Revolution. While just a lad of 13, he was serving as a militia messenger when he was captured by the British.
Washington also technically was a prisoner of war during the French and Indian War but was immediately paroled.
Four of our presidents were decorated for valor in battle.
The most notable was Teddy Roosevelt. While a colonel during the Spanish-American War, he led the charge up San Juan Hill near Santiago, Cuba, with the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. He later was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Lyndon Johnson was decorated with the Silver Star by Gen. Douglas McArthur for his role in a B-26 bombing mission in the Pacific during World War II, while serving as a commander in the Navy, although the decoration was controversial as to whether it was fully deserved.
Kennedy, who received the Purple Heart after being wounded, was decorated with the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for saving his crew.
And finally, George H.W. Bush, who was the youngest pilot in the Navy during World War II at age 19, received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Several presidents served in more than one of America’s wars over the years.
Washington, Eisenhower, Grant, William Henry Harrison and Carter all served during two wars.
However, two presidents stand alone in service to their country, having been a part of four wars prior to becoming president.
Zachary Taylor, who achieved the rank of major general, fought in four different wars — the War of 1812, the Blackhawk War, the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War.
Not to be outdone, Andrew Jackson also served in four different wars for this nation. Old Hickory, who also attained the rank of major general, fought in the Revolutionary War, the Creek War, the First Seminole War and the War of 1812. During the latter, he routed a superior, veteran British force with a rag-tag army, becoming a national hero at the Battle of New Orleans.
As an asterisk to this column, President Grover Cleveland was drafted into the Army during the Civil War, but paid a substitute $150 to serve in his stead, as was allowed during that time in our nation’s history. His substitute survived the war.
While you may think this last historical fact strange and totally foreign to a great democracy such as ours, and out of character for most presidents, that will be addressed in the future — historically speaking.
Christy is news editor at the Enid News & Eagle and can be reached at davidc@enidnews.com.
Also, the blurb about the General failed to mention that when congress acted to honor him, they posthumously gave him a sixth star so no one could ever outrank him.
Isn’t Obama’s rank as Messiah higher than a 5 star officer or President?
The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...
Lots of interesting POTUS facts herein...hope you Freepers like this one
And thank you, OKers!
Indeed...he transcends the cosmos (although with his poll numbers dropping, maybe it’s just the solar system these days).
In his own little mind it is.
Thanks for the pic. A childhood friend of mine who is retired Navy (after 27 years) sent me an article a few years back that had a recent interview with one of the guys in the pic (I believe those were Army Rangers right before D-Day). It was terrific...Ike was wonderful (even though he graduated dead last in his class at West Point).
Your welcome, Pharmboy - the pic is General Eisenhower addressing members of the 101st Airborne (Screaming Eagles) right before D-Day.
Ah...thanks for the correction. I knew it was a noteworthy group, and the 101st Airborne surely qualifies...
How about Herbert Hoover and the Boxer Rebellion.
Didn’t he help defend Tsentain, even leading Marines around.
I’m not sure of his military status at the time, but his first national attention was reports of how he used bags of rice to build fortifications to keep the Boxers out of the port town. Keeping the port enabled later relief expeditions to have an easy entry into China.
>>Isn’t Obama’s rank as Messiah higher than a 5 star officer or President?<<
He served our country by writing 2 books, neither of which had any content. A “life of service” just ain’t what it used to be...
Thanks for the post, though, after reading his bio, I am impressed.
Although, in fairness, Monroe and Jefferson were colonels of the Virginia Militia - more a social post than anything. It was expected that gentlemen of the time would be officers of the militia.
Thanks for the ping, Pharmboy — this kind of thing always astonishes me. So many of our Presidents were so extraordinary and gave so much of themselves when serving.
Clearly, last year our standards for selecting the POTUS fell to unprecedented lows.
Arthur is a little misleading. He was a quartermaster general and an inspector general of the state of NY and given the rank of Brigadier General. But he was not a military man.
But doesn`t Obummer qualify as an official U.S Govt. Corpse Man?
Interesting article about our US presidents.
BTW - Harry Truman started out as a private in the Missouri National Guard.
As far as TJ, well, he was never much of a soldier, but he sure could write.
For example, when he writes about the four who were cited for valor, he does not mention Washington or Monroe, since there were no citations around during the RevWar. There was no man braver than Washington on the battlefield, from the French and Indian War through the revolution. Just to cite one instance: at Princeton, the militia was falling back, so Washington, atop his white horse, drove them and then led them into the line of Redcoat muskets. As he rode in front of them, Sgt. Fitzgerald of the Continental Army could not bear to look and literally covered his eyes as they leveled their weapons and fired. After the smoke cleared, the general was still atop his horse and the sargeant was overcome with joy.
Not true. He was 61st out of 164 --- http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/dwight_eisenhower.htm
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.