Edited By Alex Knapp and Michael Noer, Forbes Staff

Reporting by Sydney Goitia-Doran and Jessica Jacolbe

Military service has been embedded into the fabric of American history since the beginning. Many Founding Fathers, including Washington and Hamilton, fought in the Revolution, and generations of great Americans have followed in their footsteps. In that spirit, for America’s 250th anniversary, we’ve ranked the entrepreneurs, politicians and cultural icons who all have one thing in common: They wore a uniform in defense of our nation.

In compiling the list, we consulted with veterans groups and retired military officers. They unanimously cautioned us against judging the quality of someone’s service—after all, whether someone fought on the frontlines or doled out paychecks in peacetime is largely beyond any individual’s control. Additionally, we were urged not to differentiate between active duty, reserves and National Guard service. Many combat infantry who served in the last Iraq war, for instance, were drawn from National Guard units. Only in cases of ties or close calls did we give a slight edge to people who served in combat, were wounded or committed acts of unusual heroism. Instead, we focused as much on the veterans’ achievements after they left the military, and because we’re Forbes, we gave extra weight to entrepreneurial accomplishments, wealth creation and philanthropy. This explains why, for example, Phil Knight and Bob Parsons outrank George W. Bush, the only living U.S. president to have served. It’s also why former Secretary of State John Kerry and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito don’t crack the top 25, although both are on the full list.

AMERICA’S GREATEST VETERANS

Knight served six months of active duty in the Army and seven in the Army Reserve. In 1964, while still in the Reserve, he co-founded what became Nike with his former University of Oregon track coach, World War II veteran Bill Bowerman. Unable to afford airfare for early business trips, Knight, who is now worth $25.5 billion, would “load a duffel bag with [shoes], put on my crispest army uniform” and hop on the next military transport plane to California, “no questions asked.”

A decorated Marine, Parsons returned from Vietnam with a Purple Heart and channeled his PTSD into building businesses. He sold software outfit Parsons Technology to Intuit for $64 million in 1994, then founded web hosting firm GoDaddy in 1997 and grew it into one of the most recognizable names in tech before cashing out. Parsons (net worth: $4.1 billion) has donated more than $170 million to groups supporting veterans and first responders.

“The Bond King” captained boats to transport Navy SEALs into combat during the Vietnam War. In 1971, he founded Pimco, which pioneered active and aggressive bond investing, the basis of his $2 billion fortune. He credits his military service for his success on Wall Street, especially for teaching him the value of clear and direct communication.

#4. George W. Bush, 80

Bush enlisted in the Air National Guard in 1968, serving as an F-102 fighter pilot during his six-year term. He founded oil company Arbusto Energy in 1977, was part-owner of MLB’s Texas Rangers from 1989 to 1998 and Texas governor before becoming president. He has spent much of his retirement painting, including a series of 66 portraits of veterans.

During World War II, the future Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner was a combat engineer, defusing landmines and booby traps after the Normandy invasion. He went on to create comedy classics like The Producers (1967) and Blazing Saddles (1974). His company Brooksfilms also produced more serious titles like the Bafta-winning The Elephant Man (1980).

#6. Thomas Frist Jr., 88

After two years as a flight surgeon during Vietnam, Frist (net worth $30.1 billion) co-founded Hospital Corporation of America. Now one of the country’s largest health care providers, HCA has hired more than 65,000 veterans and their family members.

#7. Daniel D'Aniello, 79

Before co-founding private equity giant Carlyle Group, D’Aniello (net worth $4.7 billion) served aboard the USS Wasp in the Navy from 1968 to 1971. He has announced $50 million in donations since 2018 to Syra­cuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families, which supports veterans transitioning into civilian careers.

#8. Stephen Schwarzman, 79

The co-founder of Blackstone (net worth: $41.6 billion) served in the Army Reserve during Vietnam, and has made his alternative-asset giant a leader in training and employing veterans, their spouses and caregivers. It hit its goal of 100,000 hired in 2021; its military internship program supports active-duty veterans transitioning to the next phase of their career.

#9. Warren Buffett, 95

In the 1950s, when a young Buffett was selling investments at his father’s brokerage firm and analyzing securities for his mentor Ben Graham, the future billionaire was also distributing paychecks as a pay specialist in the Army National Guard. He is now worth nearly $140 billion.

The high school dropout joined the Navy at 17 and credits his three and a half years in the military with giving him discipline and struc­ture. He went on to found Silicon Graphics and then Netscape, amassing a fortune of $7.6 billion.

#11. John Paul DeJoria, 82

DeJoria had no money for college, so he enlisted in the U.S. Navy after he graduated from high school in 1962 and served two years on the USS Hornet. During his service, the future billionaire hop­scotched across Asia. “It was one of the best experiences of my life,” recalls DeJoria, who is now worth $3.1 billion, but was homeless twice before co-founding the hair care outfit John Paul Mitchell Systems in 1980 and co-founding tequila maker Patrón Spirits nine years later. “The Navy taught regular people like me how to work together as a team and achieve extraordinary results.”

After graduating from Harvard in 1969, Gore deployed as a military journalist to Vietnam. He was later elected to the House of Repre­sentatives, the Senate and the vice presidency. After losing the 2000 presidential election, he pursued multiple business ventures but is best known for the environmental activism that won him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

#13. Ralph Lauren, 86

The fashion design­er (net worth: $14.5 billion) left Baruch College in New York City to enlist in the Army, where he served for two years in the early 1960s. Inspired by an Amer­ican flag across the street from his Bronx childhood home, he donated $10 million to the Smithsonian in 1998 to preserve the orig­inal flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

#14. Richard Kinder, 81

The co-founder of energy giant Kinder Morgan was deployed during the Vietnam War as a legal officer after earning a JD at the University of Missouri in 1968. Through his Kinder Foundation, he has pledged to give away 95% of his $12.9 billion fortune.

#15. Vincent Viola, 70

The West Point graduate served in the 101st Airborne division from 1977 to 1980. He later backed the Combating Terrorism Center at his alma mater to research counterterrorism policy and strategy. The founder of electronic trading firm Virtu Financial and owner of the NHL’s Florida Panthers, Viola was Donald Trump’s first nomination for Secretary of the Army but withdrew his name due to business conflicts. His net worth currently stands at $7.4 bil­lion.

The billionaire served in the Air Force as a nuclear weapons custodian after graduating from Yale in 1957. In 1986, he bought a small nuclear energy company from Chevron with his younger brother, Linden. The Blues went on to build defense firm General Atomics into one of the U.S. government’s largest private contractors and the basis of Neal’s $5.5 billion fortune.

#17. Richard Schulze, 85

The retail tycoon (net worth: $4.6 billion) skipped college to join the Air National Guard in 1958. He then took a job as a manufacturer’s repre­sentative for electronics components before founding what became Best Buy in 1966.

#18. Morgan Freeman, 89

The Oscar-winning actor (for 2004’s Million Dollar Baby) spent four years in the Air Force specializing in radar repair. His Revelations Entertainment has produced such films and TV shows as Invictus (2009) and Madame Secretary (2014-19).

#19. Willis Johnson, 79

The founder (net worth: $1.7 billion) of vehicle salvage and auction giant Copart was drafted into the war in Vietnam, where he was wounded in combat, earning a Purple Heart.

Vance enlisted in the Marines out of high school and spent four years as a military journalist, at one point deployed to Iraq. Afterward, he obtained a law degree from Yale and became a venture capitalist before being elected as a U.S. senator from Ohio in 2022 and vice president in 2024.

#21. Tom Monaghan, 89

In 1956, Monaghan joined the Marines by mistake—he intended to enlist in the Army. He served three years, then enrolled in college on the G.I. bill before dropping out to buy a pizza joint that became Domino’s. He sold the chain in 1998 and gave much of his fortune to Catholic charities.

#22. Kathleen Hildreth, 64

The West Point graduate flew Army helicopters for five years in the 1980s before co-founding aviation maintenance company M1 Support Services. She sold a controlling stake to private equity firm Cerberus in 2024 and is now worth more than $500 million.

America’s richest real estate developer (net worth: $19.2 billion) graduated from the University of Washington in 1956 and then spent three years as a U.S. Marine Corps officer. A conservationist and philanthropist, he has donated some 58,000 acres to be preserved as parks and wilderness.

#24. William Foley II, 81

The billionaire founder of title insurance company Fidelity National Financial and owner of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights graduated from West Point, then cross-commissioned into the Air Force. He chairs the Folded Flag Foundation, which supports families of fallen service members, and is worth some $2.6 billion.

The pioneering Silicon Valley venture capital­ist served in the Korean War before, in 1965, co-founding Sutter Hill Ventures, which has backed companies like Nvidia and Snowflake.

#26. Thomas Hagen, 90

Before becoming chairman of Erie Insurance Group, Hagen (net worth: $4.6 billion) served as an active duty and reserve officer in the Navy for a combined 34 years.

#27. Jennifer Pritzker, 75

The Hyatt hotel heiress (net worth: $2.8 billion) is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and founder of private wealth management firm Tawani Enterprises.

#28. Yvon Chouinard, 87

The founder of outdoor retail giant Patagonia was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1962. In 2022 he donated his $1.2 billion fortune to environmental nonprofit Holdfast Collective and put Patagonia under control of a charitable trust.

Lamb spent four years in the Navy as a public affairs officer, using that experience to found C-SPAN in 1979, which gave Americans unprecedented coverage of the workings of the federal government.

#30. George Joseph, 104

America’s oldest billionaire was a flight navigator during World War II before he founded insurance company Mercury General in 1962. He is currently worth some $2.9 billion.

#31. Herbert Wertheim, 87

After running away from home and facing truancy charges in 1956, Wertheim was given a choice: reform school or the Navy. He chose the latter, which set him on his eventual course of becoming an optometrist turned inventor turned investor, amassing a $4.6 billion fortune.

Scott served for three years in the Navy as a radar operator during the Vietnam War era. Afterward, he used the G.I. bill to earn a law degree, later co-founding Columbia Hospital Corporation in 1987. In 2010 he became governor of Florida, serving two terms before being elected to the Senate in 2018.

#33. Bill Marriott Jr., 94

Marriott was a Navy supply officer from 1954 to 1956 and used that experience in the more than 40 years he served as CEO of his family’s hospitality business, growing it into one of the largest hotel chains in the world.

#34. Berry Gordy Jr., 96

Gordy was drafted into the Army during the Korean War, where he served as a chaplain’s assistant. Afterward, he founded Motown records in 1959 and helped launch the careers of musicians like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5.

The legendary corporate raider and founder of Icahn Enterprises dropped out of the New York University School of Medicine in 1960 to enlist in the Army.

#36. Bradford Parkinson, 91

While in the Air Force, Parkinson led the project that developed the first GPS satellites. After leaving the service in 1978, Parkinson worked for multiple aerospace companies, served as CEO of GPS pioneer Trimble Navigation and led a NASA mission that tested Einstein’s theory of relativity.

#37. William Franke, 89

After spending three years of active duty in the Army, Franke was an executive at multiple companies, including Circle K and America West Airlines, before founding Indigo Partners in 2002, which invests in budget airlines like Frontier.

Drafted into the Korean War, Alpert played trumpet in the 6th Army Band. Starting in the late 1950s, Alpert penned multiple songs that became top 20 hits both for himself and others, including Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World” (1960). In 1962, he co-founded A&M Records, which produced albums for the likes of Quincy Jones, The Police and Janet Jackson before its $500 million acquisition by Polygram in 1989.

The Intel co-founder and venture capitalist who backed tech giants like Fairchild Semiconductor and Apple served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

The co-founder of Thayer Aerospace and former Congressman, CIA Director and Secretary of State graduated from West Point in 1986 and served as an Army officer for five years.

As a Naval aviator, Mark Kelly flew 39 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm. Afterwards, he was selected as an astronaut by NASA, going to space four times, including on the space shuttle Endeavour’s last mission. After NASA, he joined stratosphere exploration company World View Enterprises in 2013 where he helped develop aircraft and procedures and was elected as a United States Senator from Arizona in 2020.

#42. Maurice Greenberg, 101

The Wall Street legend who ran finance and insurance giant AIG from 1968 to 2005 participated in the Normandy invasion on D-Day and helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp.

#43. Burton Malkiel, 93

One of the leading proponents of the efficient-market hypothesis, Malkiel used his bestselling book A Random Walk Down Wall Street (1973) to argue that individual investors are unlikely to beat the market and are generally better off with passive strategies. His ideas helped inspire index investing pioneer Jack Bogle to build Vanguard’s first index fund. Prior to his career in academia and finance, the Princeton economist served for three years in the Army Finance Corps.

#44. Louis Argenta, 83

Navy Medical Corps veteran Argenta is the co-inventor of Vacuum-Assisted Closure, a wound healing device that’s been used on more than 20 million patients since it was introduced to the market in 1995.

#45. Charles B. Johnson, 93

The former CEO of investment management firm Franklin Templeton (net worth: $6.8 billion) was part of the Army ROTC program at Yale, from which he graduated in 1954.

#46. Rupert Johnson Jr., 85

The former Marine serves as vice chairman of investment firm Franklin Resources and is worth some $5.9 billion.

#47. Duncan MacMillan, 88

He served four years in the Marines before co-founding Bloomberg L.P. with Mike Bloomberg in 1981 and designing many of its computer systems. His fortune is estimated at $1.8 billion.

After his time in the Marines, Gerry founded what became Cablevision in 1956. The company started as a TV repair business before becoming a major cable operator that Gerry (net worth: $1.5 billion) sold to Time Warner in 1996 for a reported $2.7 billion.

The Hobby Lobby founder and Christian evangelist served in the Air Force Reserve during the Vietnam War era.

#50. Bobby Ray Inman, 95

Inman was the first naval intelligence specialist to achieve the rank of four-star admiral and served as director of the National Security Agency from 1977 to 1981. After his government service, he was the CEO of a couple of tech firms, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp. (MCC) and Westmark Systems, both based in Austin. He was also chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 1987 to 1990.

#51. Norm Asbjornson, 90

The founder of HVAC manufacturer AAON was a tech mechanic in the Army and is worth $1.2 billion.

#52. William Goldring, 83

After serving in the National Guard, Goldring (net worth: $6 billion) joined his father’s liquor business and helped grow Sazerac into a major market player with brands like Pappy Van Winkle, George T. Stagg and Fireball.

#53. Stephen L. McKnight, 76

McKnight served on a tank crew in the Army during the Vietnam War. Afterward, he went into biochemistry, pioneering techniques used in modern understanding of genetics. He has co-founded multiple biotech companies, including Nura Bio, Peloton Therapeutics and Tularik.

After a two-year stint in the Army, Langone went to Wall Street, where one of the defining moments of his career was taking Ross Perot’s company Electronic Data Systems public in 1968. A second such moment came in 1978, when he provided investment capital to Arthur Blank and Bernard Marcus to start Home Depot.

Miller served in the U.S. Army before founding hospital system Universal Health Services in 1979, the success of which enabled him to build a net worth of $1.6 billion.

#56. Herb Chambers, 84

When he was 18 in 1959, Chambers dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Navy. After his service, he borrowed $500 from his mother to found his first company, copier distributor A-Copy America which he sold to Alco Standard Corporation for $80 million in 1983. He then built a New England car dealership empire that is the basis of his $2.8 billion fortune.

#57. Mitch McConnell, 84

Kentucky’s longest-serving senator (1985 – present) and former Senate majority leader briefly served in the Army Reserve in 1967 before being honorably discharged for medical........

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