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Results: War Heroes that became President of the USA ** Part Two, While all of the Presidents who served in the U.S. military did so with honor and dedication. Here, are five U.S. Presidents whose military service might truly be called "heroic."

Published on 05/14/2021
By: fsr1kitty
2249
Education
When the 17-year-old George H.W. Bush heard of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he decided to join the Navy as soon as he turned 18. After graduating from Phillips Academy in 1942, Bush deferred his admission to Yale University and accepted a commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy. At just 19, Bush became the youngest naval aviator in World War II at the time.
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On September 2, 1944, Lieutenant Bush, with a crew of two, was piloting a Grumman TBM Avenger on a mission to bomb a communications station on the Japanese-occupied island of Chichijima. As Bush began his bombing run, the Avenger was hit by intense antiaircraft fire. With the cockpit filling with smoke and expecting the plane to explode at any time, Bush completed the bombing run and turned the plane back over the ocean. Flying as far over the water as possible, Bush ordered his crew—Radioman Second Class John Delancey and Lt. J.G. William White—to bail out before bailing out himself. After hours floating in the ocean, Bush was rescued by the Navy submarine, the USS Finback. The other two men were never found. For his actions, Bush was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and a Presidential Unit Citation. After the war, Bush went on to serve in the U.S. Congress from 1967 to 1971 as a U.S. Representative from Texas, special envoy to China, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Vice President of the United States, and the 41st President of the United States. Were you aware that George H Bush had been Director of the CIA?
Yes
32%
714 votes
No
50%
1098 votes
Undecided
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122 votes
Not Applicable
12%
266 votes
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Harry S. Truman Colonel, Army Officer Reserve Corps: 1919-1945 33rd President of the United States: 1945 – 1953 Although two years over the draft age limit when World War I broke out, Truman volunteered for duty and helped organize his National Guard regiment. They were called to serve in the 129th Field Artillery in France, where he was promoted to captain and assigned to Battery D, known for unruly soldiers. Truman earned the respect of those serving with him, leading them through the campaign at Meuse-Argonne After the war, he returned home and progressed through politics, first as a judge, then senator. In 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected as President for his fourth term with Truman as his Vice President. Weeks later, Roosevelt died of a stroke and Truman was sworn in as President. In his first six months in office, he announced the Germans' surrender, signed the order to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which effectively ended World War II, and signed the charter ratifying the United Nations. In 1948, during the Cold War, Russians blockaded western segments of Berlin, so Truman provided supply airlifts to Berlin until the Russians relented. He also helped establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, (NATO) in 1949. Truman introduced the "Fair Deal" program at the 1949 State of the Union Address , which included universal health care, increased minimum wage, and increased funding for education. When Communist North Korea attacked South Korea in 1950, Truman saw it as a challenge that if left unchecked would escalate to another world war, so he quickly committed United States military to the aid of South Korea. The mission there quickly changed from a plan to eradicate communists, to simply containing and preserving independence for South Korea. Were you aware that In 1971, Congress attempted to bestow Truman with the Medal of Honor, but he refused, explaining in a letter, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise." ?
Yes
14%
311 votes
No
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1051 votes
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398 votes
Not Applicable
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440 votes
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Young John F. Kennedy was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Naval Reserve in September 1941. After completing Naval Reserve Officer Training School in 1942, he was promoted to lieutenant junior grade and assigned to a patrol torpedo boat squadron in Melville, Rhode Island. In 1943, Kennedy was reassigned to the Pacific Theater of World War II where he would command two patrol torpedo boats, PT-109 and PT-59. On August 2, 1943, with Kennedy in command of a crew of 20, PT-109 was cut in half when a Japanese destroyer off the Solomon Islands rammed into it. Gathering his crew in the ocean around the wreckage, Lieutenant Kennedy reportedly asked them, "There's nothing in the book about a situation like this. A lot of you men have families and some of you have children. What do you want to do? I have nothing to lose." After his crew joined him in refusing to surrender to the Japanese, Kennedy led them on a three-mile swim to an unoccupied island where they were later rescued. When he saw that one of his crewmen was too badly injured to swim, Kennedy clenched the strap of the sailor's life jacket in his teeth and towed him to shore. Kennedy was subsequently awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism and the Purple Heart Medal for his injuries. According to his citation, Kennedy "unhesitatingly braved the difficulties and hazards of darkness to direct rescue operations, swimming many hours to secure aid and food after he had succeeded in getting his crew ashore." After being medically discharged from the Navy due to a chronic back injury, Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946, to the U.S. Senate in 1952, and as President of the United States in 1960. Have you seen the 1963 Movie PT109?
Yes
27%
586 votes
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1137 votes
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313 votes
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While President Ulysses S. Grant also served in the Mexican-American War, his greatest military feat was no less than keeping the United States together. Under his command as General of the U.S. Army, Grant overcame a series of early battlefield setbacks to defeat the Confederate Army in the Civil War and restore the Union. After the Mexican-American War ended in 1854, Grant left the Army hoping to start a new career as a school teacher. However, Grant's teaching career was short-lived, as he immediately joined the Union Army when the Civil War erupted in 1861. Commanding Union troops on the war's western front, Grant's forces won a series of decisive Union victories along the Mississippi River. Elevated to the rank of Commander of the Union Army, Grant personally accepted the surrender of Confederate leader General Robert E. Lee on April 12, 1865, after the Battle of Appomattox. First elected in 1868, Grant would go on to serve two terms as President, largely dedicating his efforts to healing the divided nation during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. Were you aware that Ulysses S Grant worked as a school teacher between wars?
Yes
11%
247 votes
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1463 votes
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342 votes
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Perhaps more so than any other U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt lived life large. Serving as assistant secretary of the Navy when the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Roosevelt resigned his post and created the nation's first all-volunteer cavalry regiment, the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, famously known as the Rough Riders. Personally leading their head-long charges, Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Riders won decisive victories in the battles of Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill. Following his service in the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt served as Governor of New York and later as Vice President of the United States under President William McKinley. When McKinley was assassinated in 1901, Roosevelt was sworn in as President. After winning a landslide victory in the election of 1904, Roosevelt announced he would not seek re-election to a second term. However, Roosevelt did run for president again in 1912—unsuccessfully this time—as the candidate of the newly-formed progressive Bull Moose Party. At a campaign stop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in October 1912, Roosevelt was shot as he approached the stage to speak. However, his steel glasses case and a copy of his speech carried in his vest pocket stopped the bullet. Undeterred, Roosevelt arose from the floor and delivered his 90-minute speech. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said as he began his address, "I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose." Did you know In 2001, President Bill Clinton posthumously awarded Roosevelt the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at San Juan Hill?
Yes
14%
298 votes
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1382 votes
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Not Applicable
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