Edited By Alex Knapp and Michael Noer, Forbes Staff

Reporting by Sydney Goitia-Doran and Jessica Jacolbe

Military service has been a part of American history since the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, and a core national idea has been that of the citizen-solider: ordinary people who take up arms when their country needs them and return to normal life afterward. With that in mind, for America’s 250th anniversary, we’ve ranked the entrepreneurs, politicians and cultural icons who’ve worn a uniform since 1776. (Everyone on this list is deceased. For the list of the 250 most successful living veterans, click here.)

In compiling the list, we focused as much on the veteran’s achievements after they left the military as they did inside, and since we are Forbes, we gave significant consideration to entrepreneurial accomplishments, wealth creation and philanthropy. We’ve also elected to highlight every veteran who occupied the White House, with one exception: John Tyler, who after his presidency sided with the Confederacy and was elected to its Congress before he died. And with the American ideal of the citizen-solider idea in mind, we also gave extra weight to those, like Jimmy Stewart and Bill Hewlett, who were willing to put their careers on hold in order to answer their country’s call during wartime.

AMERICA’S MOST SUCCESSFUL HISTORIC VETERANS

#1. George Washington, 1732-1799

After winning the Revolutionary War, the Father of our country served as President of the Constitutional Convention before becoming the first President of the United States. He also built a large fortune through real estate speculation and was the biggest whiskey distiller in the young nation, producing nearly 11,000 gallons a year.

#2. Alexander Hamilton, 1757-1804

During the Revolution, Hamilton was Washington’s right-hand man, managing both the general’s correspondence and spy network. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, he helped build America’s financial system. He’s also the founder of The New York Post and the bank that is now BNY.

#3. Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865

Lincoln was a captain in the Illinois militia during 1832’s Black Hawk War. Afterward, in addition to building his own private law practice, he championed infrastructure and chartering of the Illinois State Bank as a state legislator before being elected to Congress. Elected President in 1860, his leadership preserved the Union during the Civil War and ended slavery.

#4. Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826

The author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States was a colonel during the Revolutionary War. After his presidency he founded the University of Virginia in 1819 and was its first rector.

#5. George Westinghouse, 1846-1914

In the late 19th century, Westinghouse’s alternating current defeated Thomas Edison’s direct current in the “war of the currents,” turning his Westinghouse Electric Corporation into one of the Gilded Age’s largest manufacturers of electrical equipment. Before that, he enlisted at the age of 17 to fight in the Civil War.

#6. Sam Walton, 1918-1992

The founder of retail giant Walmart served as an Army intelligence officer during World War II. His family was the richest in America when he died in 1992.

#7. Robert Noyce, 1927-1990

Noyce enlisted in the Navy in 1945, before earning a PhD in physics at MIT. In 1959 co-invented the microchip and founded first Fairchild Semiconductor and later Intel.

#8. William Lear, 1902-1978

The Navy vet was the founder of business jet pioneer Learjet in 1959. He also developed the car radio with Paul Galvin (#17), which went to market in 1930, and the 8-track player, first offered for sale in 1965.

#9. Bill Bowerman, 1911-1999

The Nike co-founder joined the Army after Pearl Harbor, where he was deployed to Italy and decorated with the Silver Star and four Bronze Stars. After the war, he became head track and field coach at the University of Oregon, where he met Phil Knight in 1955 and designed the “waffle sole” that revolutionized running shoes.

#10. Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919

Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the spring of 1898 when he resigned to lead the “Rough Riders” in combat during the Spanish-American War. He parlayed his exploits into being elected governor of New York later that year, then was elected vice-president in 1900 and became President after McKinley’s assassination in 1901.

#11. Neil Armstrong, 1930-2012

Before he became the first person to walk on the Moon, Armstrong was a Naval aviator who saw action during the Korean War and flew on three NASA Gemini missions. Afterward he served on multiple corporate boards, including Learjet, United Airlines and manufacturer Caldwell International.

#12. H. Ross Perot, 1930-2019

The billionaire founder of Electronic Data Systems, which he sold to GM for $2.5 billion in 1984 (about $7.7 billion in today’s money), was a 1953 graduate of the Naval Academy and served in the Korean War era. In 1992, he famously launched a third-party bid for the Presidency, amassing nearly 19% of the vote.

#13. Jack Taylor, 1922-2016

Taylor named the business he founded in 1957—Enterprise Rent-A-Car—after the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, on which he’d served during World War II as a Naval aviator.

#14. Fred Smith, 1944-2025

Smith served in the Marines during the Vietnam War, where he led a platoon and won a Silver Star, Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. He founded overnight delivery service Federal Express in 1971, based on an idea he originally put forth in a college paper. He got a “C” because his professor felt the idea wasn’t feasible.

#15. John Marshall, 1755-1835

Marshall fought in multiple battles during the Revolutionary War and survived Valley Forge before he became the longest-serving Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835. He defined the Court’s key role as arbiter of the Constitution in the landmark 1803 case Marbury v Madison.

#16. Ted Turner, 1938-2026

Turner served in the Coast Guard during the Vietnam War era. Afterward, he turned Atlanta’s TBS into cable’s first “superstation,” bought the Atlanta Braves in 1976 and invented the 24-hour news cycle with CNN. He died in May.

#17. Paul Galvin, 1895-1959

The founder of communications pioneer Motorola—named for its first product, the car radio Galvin developed with Lear (#8)—enlisted in the Army during World War I, where he served as a frontline artillery officer in France.

#18. William S. Knudsen, 1879-1948

While serving as president of General Motors, Knudsen was commissioned as a Lieutenant General during World War II, using his expertise to organize the wartime manufacturing effort.

#19. Charles G. Dawes, 1865-1951

Dawes served as general during World War I. Afterward, he helped develop the Dawes Plan to rebuild Europe after the conflict, winning him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925. He then served as vice-president under Coolidge, and after his term founded the City National Bank in Chicago and served as its chairman until his death. He’s one of two American Nobel Prize winners to have written a No. 1 pop hit, “It’s All In The Game.” The other is Bob Dylan.

#20. Harriet Tubman, 1822-1913

Best known for her work helping slaves escape via the Underground Railroad, Tubman was also the first American woman to lead military forces in combat, serving the Union Army as a scout and nurse during the Civil War. When she died, she was buried with military honors.

#21. Adolphus Busch, 1839-1913

Busch immigrated to the United States in 1857 and fought for the Union during the Civil War. Afterward, he joined his father-in-law’s brewery, which they renamed Anheuser-Busch in 1879. Busch took the reins of the company in 1880, and produced the first pasteurized beer, which he called Budweiser.

#22. Eberhard Anheuser, 1806-1880

The German immigrant was a major creditor for a struggling brewery and decided to take it over in 1860. He served in the Civil War on the Union side, and his son-in-law Adolphus Busch joined the brewery, which the pair turned into one of the largest beer companies in the world.

#23. Julian Robertson Jr., 1932-2022

The Navy veteran worked as a stockbroker after leaving the military in 1957. In 1980, he co-founded Tiger Management, one of the first hedge funds. During his lifetime, he donated more than $2 billion to philanthropic causes.

#24. Bill Hewlett, 1913-2001

Hewlett co-founded Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett-Packard Company in a Palo Alto garage in 1939. During World War II, he stepped aside from the business to serve as an Army Signal Corps officer. HP went public in 1957; Hewlett was its CEO from 1968 to 1978.

#25. Elvis Presley, 1935-1977

In 1958, at the peak of his fame, the King of Rock and Roll was drafted into the Army. He served two years as a regular solider in a tank battalion in West Germany before resuming his music career.

#26. Tom Benson, 1927-2018

Benson enlisted in the Navy during World War II, serving on the USS South Dakota. Afterward, he built his career in New Orleans by acquiring successful car dealerships and banks, becoming an owner of the NFL’s Saints in 1985 and the NBA’s Pelicans in 2012. He was worth some $3 billion when he died.

#27. Henry Lomb, 1828-1908

Lomb co-founded optics giant Bausch & Lomb in 1853. Less than a decade later, he enlisted in the military to fight for the Union in the Civil War. After his militia unit dissolved in 1863, he returned to the business.

#28. James Forten, 1766-1842

A free Black man, Forten was a privateer for the Continental Navy during the American Revolution. After the war, he built a major sail-manufacturing company and used his wealth to back abolitionist causes. During the War of 1812, he helped mobilize a volunteer force of more than 2,000 men to erect defense for the city of Philadelphia.

#29. Jorje Mas Canosa, 1939-1997

Canosa fled the Cuban revolution in 1960, settling in Miami and enlisting in the Army. He acquired telecom company Church & Tower in 1971, which he expanded into one of the largest in Florida. The company became the basis for multinational construction giant MasTec (2025 revenue: $14 billion), where Canosa’s son now serves as CEO.

#30. George H. W. Bush, 1924-2018

Bush flew combat missions in World War II’s Pacific theater. After the war, he co-founded oil company Zapata Petroleum in 1953. He sold his stake in the company in the mid-1960s before embarking on a political career that saw him elected to Congress in 1966, appointed ambassador to the UN in 1970, made CIA director in 1976, elected to the vice-presidency in 1980 and to the White House in 1988.

#31. H. Wayne Huizenga, 1937-2018

Huizenga enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1959 before founding garbage giant Waste Management, which he took public in 1971. He later bought and expanded Blockbuster Video before selling it to Viacom for $8.4 billion in 1994. He also founded Republic Services, hotel chain Extended Stay America and car retailer AutoNation.

#32. Don Valentine, 1932-2019

Valentine was in the Army when he first came to California. After his service, he stuck around and in 1972 founded Sequoia Capital, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm that made early investments in the likes of Electronic Arts, Cisco and Apple.

#33. S. Daniel Abraham, 1924-2025

The co-founder of SlimFast was a combat infantryman during World War II. He sold the company to Unilever in 2000 for $2.3 billion.

#34. Paul Newman, 1925-2008

Newman served in the Pacific theater during World War II, then used the G.I. Bill to get a degree at Kenyon College. He starred in more than 50 movies, including Cool Hand Luke (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Sting (1973) and won Oscar for Best Actor in 1986’s The Color of Money. In 1982, he founded Newman’s Own, which makes everything from frozen pizza to salad dressing and donates 100% of its after-tax profits to charity, totaling about $600 million over the decades.

#35. Arnold Palmer, 1929-2016

After serving for three years in the Coast Guard, Arnold became a professional golfer, winning seven Major championships in his lifetime. He later co-founded the Golf Channel and earned over $1.4 billion in his career from licensing deals.

#36. Georges Doriot, 1899-1987

Doriot is known as the “father of venture capital” due to founding the American Research & Development Corporation in 1956, which developed the now standard idea of providing strategic advice to startups alongside capital. He was a brigadier general in the Army Quartermaster Corps during World War II.

#37. Erle Halliburton, 1892-1957

Halliburton enlisted in the Navy in 1910 and served for five years, where he ran the service’s first motorized barge. In 1919, he founded the oil company that became global energy services giant Halliburton.

#38. James Monroe, 1758-1831

Before he became the fifth President of the United States, Monroe was an officer during the Revolution, serving alongside Washington. After the war, he served as a Senator from Virginia, and ambassador to France where he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase for then-President Jefferson.

#39. Kemmons Wilson, 1913-2003

After serving as an Army cargo pilot during World War II, Wilson founded Holiday Inn in 1952.

#40. Dwight Eisenhower, 1890-1969

“Ike” served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, ensuring victory over Germany in World War II. He was elected President in 1952 and served two terms, during which he helped bolster America’s booming postwar economy through projects like the Small Business Administration, the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Interstate Highway System.

#41. Forrest Bird, 1921-2015

Bird was a pilot during World War II, and his experience with onboard oxygen systems inspired him to create the first mass-produced ventilators and respirators for hospitals. He founded Bird Corporation in 1953 to commercialize the technology, which has saved the lives of millions of patients.

#42. John Wooden, 1910-2010

After serving in the Navy during World War II, coach Wooden built a basketball dynasty at UCLA between 1948 and 1975, leading the Bruins to 10 championships.

#43. Sheldon Adelson, 1933-2021

Before Adelson became a billionaire Las Vegas casino mogul and powerhouse political operator, he was an Army clerk during the Korean War, serving stateside.

#44. Jackie Robinson, 1919-1972

Before he shattered baseball’s color barrier in 1947, Robinson was a Second Lieutenant in the 761st Tank Battalion, known as the “Black Panthers,” during World War II, but his military career was derailed in an incident in which he refused to sit at the back of a bus. That led to him being court-martialed for insubordination, but though he was acquitted, the legal process prevented him from being deployed. After his ball-playing career was over, he co-founded Harlem’s Freedom National Bank in 1964 and served as its first Chairman of the Board.

#45. Arthur George Gaston, 1892-1996

Gaston enlisted in the Army in 1913 and served during World War I. Despite Alabama’s Jim Crow laws, he founded the Booker T. Washington Insurance Company in 1923, whose success he parlayed into a business college and real estate holdings throughout Birmingham.

#46. Ted Lerner, 1925-2023

The billionaire real estate developer and owner of the Washington National’s baseball team was drafted into the Army during World War II.

#47. Tom Love, 1937-2023

Love did a three-year stint in the Marines before co-founding Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores in 1964.

#48. James Fergason, 1934-2008

After serving in the Army between 1956 and 1957, Fergason transformed consumer electronics with improved LCD displays, an invention he commercialized starting with digital watches and calculators through Ilixco, the company he founded in 1970.

#49. Juan Trippe, 1899-1981

The founder of Pan Am, the largest airline in the world through most of the mid-20th century, was a Naval aviator during World War I.

#50. Ulysses Grant, 1822-1885

The architect of the Union Army’s victory in the Civil War was subsequently elected to two terms as President. After a series of costly business failures, he wrote his memoirs, which became a bestseller, generating more than $16 million (in 2026 dollars) in royalties.

#51. Lindsey Graham, 1955-2026

Graham was a judge-advocate in the Air Force from 1982 to 1989, where he made headlines exposing the service’s faulty drug-testing practices while defending an office. He was first elected to Congress in 1994 and then served as Senator from South Carolina in 2003 until his death this year.

#52. Eugene Kleiner, 1923-2003

Kleiner served in the Army during World War II. Afterwards, he used the G.I. Bill to earn a degree in industrial engineering, then co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor. In 1972, he co-founded pioneering Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, which made early investments in companies like Amazon, Google and Sun Microsystems.

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