On Veterans Day, Americans celebrate the valor of members of the United States armed services, but did you know that 31 of the 45 men who have served as president of the United States served in the military beforehand?

Here are five presidents who served on the battlefield before the White House.

Before President Harry Truman presided over the Allied victory in World War II, he fought in the World War I as an artillery captain.

Truman saw extensive combat against the German military in France. I “fired 500 rounds at the Germans at my command, been shelled, didn’t run away thank the Lord and never lost a man,” Truman wrote his future wife Bess Wallace in September 1918 of a run-in with German forces in France. 

“My greatest satisfaction is that my legs didn’t succeed in carrying me away although they were very anxious to do it … please don’t worry about me because no German shell is made that can hit me. One exploded in 15 feet of me and I didn’t get a scratch so you can see I have them beat there,” Truman’s letter continued.

The Missourian was almost 33 years old when he........

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