# How many leaders only have been enlisted men? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 2, 2015, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990 "2015-03-02T05:54:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/21 "2015-03-02T15:15:17Z")
> [@jezzaOZ](#): > > Adolph Hitler for one. He had rank Gefreiter which is roughly corporal. I came into this thread to mention Hitler. He saw battle in WW1 as an enlisted man. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/22 "2015-03-02T15:25:24Z")
Abraham Lincoln’s military service is a bit of an oddity. He served as an officer but ended his service as an enlisted man. [He served in the volunteer militia in the Black Hawk War.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_in_the_Black_Hawk_War) He enlisted, was elected captain, was mustered out, and then reenlisted as a private. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/23 "2015-03-02T15:33:09Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Looking at the wikipedia list of American Presidents military ranks, Buchanan (a Private during the War of 1812) seems to be the only one with an enlisted rank. Vice-President Mondale parlayed his stint as a Corporal into a GI-Bill-funded education at law school, the better to serve as Ambassador and Senator and run for President. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/24 "2015-03-02T17:58:11Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Abraham Lincoln’s military service is a bit of an oddity. He served as an officer but ended his service as an enlisted man. [He served in the volunteer militia in the Black Hawk War.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_in_the_Black_Hawk_War) He enlisted, was elected captain, was mustered out, and then reenlisted as a private. Lincoln was once marching his squad of men and they came to a narrow gate. He couldn’t remember the drill command to get a large number of men to go through the gate single-file. So he just called out: “Company will break ranks and re-assemble on the other side of that gate.” ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/25 "2015-03-02T18:22:49Z")
Bobby Kennedy was a Navy Enlisted man for about 20 minutes in 1946. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/26 "2015-03-02T23:37:29Z")
Dan Quayle was a Sergeant in the National Guard. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/27 "2015-03-03T02:43:29Z")
Mo Udall went from serving as a military officer to taking over the Congressional seat vacated by his big brother Stewart Udall – who’d been an enlisted man playing gunner on an Army Air Corps B-24 during WWII, and who aforementionedly left the House of Representatives to work as a Cabinet Secretary under JFK and LBJ. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/28 "2015-03-04T17:07:21Z")
USN Petty Officer 2nd Class [Cecil D. Andrus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_D._Andrus) got work at a sawmill after hanging up his uniform, and eventually started serving as a State Senator before getting elected Governor, and after roughly six years of that spent roughly four years serving in the Presidential Cabinet of former naval _lieutenant_ turned State Senator turned Governor Jimmy Carter – after which Andrus returned home and spent roughly eight more years as Governor, because of course he did. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/29 "2015-03-05T16:51:27Z")
William Usery, Jr left behind his civilian life as a welder to enlist in the Navy during WWII, serving as – well, a welder, of course. And then the war ended, and he returned to civilian life: earning paychecks as a welder, and working his way up the AFL-CIO ranks and et cetera until he eventually got tapped as Secretary of Labor. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/30 "2015-03-06T04:19:37Z")
> [@jezzaOZ](#): > > Adolph Hitler for one. He had rank Gefreiter which is roughly corporal. So was Mussolini. Arnold Schwarzenegger Served in the Austrian Army for a year In 1965 ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/31 "2015-03-06T08:27:33Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Aren’t there a number of African dictators who were enlisted men at the time of their coup? I guess [Master Sergeant Samuel Doe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Doe) of Liberia was one. And his colleague contemporary, Ghana’s president from 1981-2001, was Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings. Does West Africa have a dearth of senior officers? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/32 "2015-03-06T16:15:50Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > And his colleague contemporary, Ghana’s president from 1981-2001, was Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings. Does West Africa have a dearth of senior officers? Where a lot of the senior commissioned billets are filled through patronage, nepotism and corruption, a junior go-getter or a well-experienced senior NCO who can rally those who actually do the fighting can go far. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990/33 "2015-03-07T01:16:36Z")
Peter J. Brennan was a Chief Petty Officer during WWII, and decades later would tell you he (a) rallied the hardhats to counter-protest against those longhairs whining about what happened at Kent State, and (b) suddenly became a Cabinet Secretary rubbing shoulders with Nixon, and just kept at it when Nixon stepped down and Ford stepped in… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-leaders-only-have-been-enlisted-men/713990.md?page=1)