And here is the rest of the story. Eight of our 20th-century presidents were former military men.
•Theodore Roosevelt served in the New York Army National Guard, holding the rank of colonel and commanding the First United States Volunteer Cavalry (the Rough-Riders) during the Spanish-American War of 1896. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal Of Honor in 2001. He was president from 1901-1909.
•Harry S Truman enlisted in the Missouri National Guard in 1905, becoming a corporal in Battery D, 129th Field Artillery. In 1917, he joined the U.S. Army and rose to the rank of captain in 1st Battalion, 379th Field Artillery during World War I. As president (1945-1953), he oversaw the end of World War II, the Berlin Air-Lift, and the Korean War.
•Dwight D. Eisenhower graduated from West Point in 1915 as second lieutenant, rising to five-star general and supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War II. Though he long resisted political office, he ran for president in 1952 and served until 1960.
•John F. Kennedy served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy during World War II, commanding a series of patrol-torpedo boats in the Pacific. He ran for president against Richard Nixon in 1960, and was president until his assassination in November of 1963.
•Richard M. Nixon was a U.S. Navy Lt. Commander during World War II, serving as OIC of the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command, earning the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal. He was vice-president under Dwight Eisenhower and became president in 1968. He resigned the presidency in 1974.
•James (Jimmy) Carter joined the U.S. Navy in 1943, rose to the rank of lieutenant and served in submarines until 1953. He was president from 1977 to 1981.
•George H. W. Bush enlisted in the U.S. Navy on his 18th birthday right after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He became one of the youngest Naval aviators, commissioned just before his 19th birthday. He piloted a Grumman TBM torpedo-bomber in several Pacific battles, flying 58 combat missions and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals. He was vice-president under Ronald Reagan and was president from 1989 to 1993.
•George W. Bush was a 1st lieutenant and pilot in the U.S. Air Force, Texas Air National Guard, and Alabama Air National Guard, attached to the 147th Air Reconnaissance Wing and 187th Fighter Wing. He was in service from 1968 to 1974. As president, he was in office from 2001 to 2009. He was also the most recent president to have served in any military capacity.
I’ll be leaving it to my readers to decide if, by gaining discipline and the ability to give and take orders in military service, our veteran-presidents were better suited for the job than the strictly-civilian presidents.
Next month: Some news about the Defense Health Agency, which will soon take over management of all Military health facilities in the United States.
Veterans organizations in Houston:
American Legion Post 41 meets at 6 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month at their meeting hall on the west end of Chilton Oil Company in Houston (just north of Pizza Hut.)
Fleet Reserve Association Branch 364 meets at 2:30 p.m. every fourth Sunday of each month at the American Legion Post 41 meeting hall in Houston.
Houston resident Robert E. Simpson is a retired U.S. Navy chief electronics technician who served from 1969 to 1990. Email gfjjkaa@gmail.com.
