Talk:List of presidents of the United States by military rank

Rank order

There is a column titled "Rank order" in which the presidents are ranked in descending numerical order according to military rank. An ip editor (12.198.144.83), changed the rank value to other, seemingly random numbers without explanation. (no edit summaries or note on talk page). This was done in 2010, with a half dozen edits, beginning with this one. I have no idea why, or what these number mean. Anyone have a idea?

Also, for some reason... this talk page was deleted, (I re-created it today) so I cannot review any history of discussion. (Weird...) - ^theWOLFchild 20:32, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

I think I've got it. The "rank order" column correlates to the rank held, and the number of presidents who held it. So, Washington is 1, Eisenhower is 2, Grant is 3, Jackson, Harrison, Taylor, Hayes, and Garfield are 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Then Pierce, Arthur, Johnson and Harrison are supposed to be 9, 10, 11, and 12. Then Jefferson, Madison, Polk, Roosevelt, and Truman are 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17. It looks like whoever created this column didn't do the numbering consistently.

Billmckern (talk) 20:59, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

Have a look at an earlier version of the table (pre-2010), you'll see that the actual "creator" of the column entered numbers that made sense. It's only after this strange, unexplained edit (noted above) by some ip editor, that the numbers were changed to what you see now. Do you or anyone else have a problem with changing the numbers back? - ^theWOLFchild 22:31, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

I think this needs to be corrected. If someone else doesn't take the initiative, I'll try to get to it when I can.

Billmckern (talk) 19:18, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

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Non-active-service promotions

I think the table should primarily reflect the highest rank that the person had while actually serving. For examine, Washington should be under Lt.Gen.; Truman should be under Major, or Captain if his promotion to Major came at the same time he was discharged. Promotions for reserve service, or done upon discharge or posthumously, should certainly be shown, but they should not be the primary way that the table is sorted and split into sections. How about changing the first column to "Highest rank in active service" and adding a new second column for "Highest formal rank"? --76.71.6.254 (talk) 13:39, 26 March 2017 (UTC)

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Adams as a 'private'

Nothing in the source says that Adams was in the military. It seems he helped the marines during a battle in a civilian capacity, while laudable, does not make him a serviceman or bestow him rank. Unless someone can find a better source, I'm going to move him to 'did not serve.' Bkatcher (talk) 04:22, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

Taft without military rank

The source about Taft states that he had no actual military rank. It describes how the red cross reorganised its management structure based upon military rank structure. Taft was made a 'major general' in the sense that he had authority in the organisation, but was not an actual military major general. I propose his entry be taken out of here. It would be akin to including a salvation army or JROTC rank. Dawkin Verbier (talk) 16:58, 8 August 2023 (UTC)