Greatest Presidential Heroes or Otherwise

[Toronado3800]

George HW Bush passing has me thinking about our Presidents who would have been noteworthy heroes (or something else) even w/o being President.

Washington, Eisenhower and Grant come to mind. Then Teddy Roosevelt, and JFK. Most of the post Civil War Presidents served.

Now I'm not saying I would have signed up for Vietnam, I may have followed Cassius Clay to Canada. Clinton and W Bush each avoided the war as did many. Trump avoided the war Donald Trump’s Draft Deferments: Four for College, One for Bad Feet then bragged about his health.

Who good or bad or noteworthy is slipping my mind during breakfast here?

 

[whitehall]

Washington's service actually created this Country. He could have been addressed as "majesty" but he preferred "mister". Ike was a genuine hero. Grant was an alcoholic pillager who's presidency was perhaps the most corrupt in history. JFK was a phony who should have (and would have) been court martialed if it wasn't for his father. What Grant and JFK have in common is great press agents

 

[Oddball]

Ike was a political General, not a field General...TR was a warmonger, not a legit military hero.

While Carter and Bob Dole were sketchy as politicians, they served quietly and with without all the hype and bravado of the people mentioned in the OP...Retired Florida congressman Sam Gibbons dropped into Normandy with the 101st Airborne, and sought no such hype either.

 

[whitehall]

The much hyped "citizen Soldier", General George C. Marshall was a political general who, thanks to FDR, skipped over a dozen more qualified generals to become COS. Ironically he was Ike's boss and Ike was afraid of being relieved of duty after the Bulge mess. MacArthur had a checkered career, being accused of hesitating during a crucial WW1 battle, but he served honorably if you can discount his role in leading the attack his own Veterans during the depression era Bonus March. He retired as COS before the War but the strange thing is that the Old Soldier was recalled to duty by FDR as the front line commander of the area most likely to be attacked by the Japanese and he failed miserably. Marshall and MacArthur had aces in the hole though with biographers and fawning media types who would buff up their legacies until they shined.

 

[harmonica]

Ike was a political General, not a field General...TR was a warmonger, not a legit military hero.

While Carter and Bob Dole were sketchy as politicians, they served quietly and with without all the hype and bravado of the people mentioned in the OP...Retired Florida congressman Sam Gibbons dropped into Normandy with the 101st Airborne, and sought no such hype either.

Patton and Montgomery screwed up
Clark screwed up
they were all field generals

 

[DrainBamage]

If Trump hadn't had the awful luck of going to a personal family doctor who detected temporary bone spurs despite his previous perfectly healthy athletic record, at a time when USA was looking for courageous young men to fight for our country in Vietnam, I'm quite sure he would have been a heroic warrior.

 

[Karl Rand]

If Trump hadn't had the awful luck of going to a personal family doctor who detected temporary bone spurs despite his previous perfectly healthy athletic record, at a time when USA was looking for courageous young men to fight for our country in Vietnam, I'm quite sure he would have been a heroic warrior.

No need to swap the D with the B, you’ve just told us.