Generals who became President

[Mairead]

Six former U.S. Presidents had enormously significant military experience before assuming the presidency: GEORGE WASHINGTON, ANDREW JACKSON, WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, ZACHARY TAYLOR, ULYSSES S. GRANT, and DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER. By "enormously significant military experience," we mean military experience that was, for all intents and purposes, their best-known (though not necessarily best) qualification for the office. We do not mean to impugn the somewhat less-significant, but nonetheless noteworthy, military experiences of former Commanders-in-Chief such as THEODORE ROOSEVELT (famous for leading his "Rough Riders" up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War), JOHN KENNEDY (of PT-109 fame), or GEORGE H.W. BUSH (who, as his 1988 presidential campaign powerfully reminded us in a brilliant bio spot -- complete with grainy video footage of a soaking-wet young airman -- was the youngest pilot to enlist in the U.S. Navy in World War II); rather, we simply mean to separate these men from the other 37 men who have served in the office, each of whom relied on other qualifications to prove his bona fides for the job.

But in point of fact, only three of these men -- Taylor, Grant, and Eisenhower -- had nothing but their war records on which to rest their case. Washington, Jackson, and Harrison each had rather significant political experience that commended them for the nation's highest office.

http://www.politicsus.com/PoliticsUS%20Publius.htm