42 Military personnel from Kentucky

Private First Class William Bernard Baugh was a United States Marine who, at age 20, received the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War.

John R. Baylor was a US Indian agent, publisher and editor, politician, and a senior officer of the Confederate States Army. After being dismissed as Indian agent, he became one of the founding editors of The White Man, a newspaper in North Texas, and a strong critic of Governor Sam Houston.

Jewel Franklin Guy, known professionally as James Best, was an American television, film, stage, and voice actor, as well as a writer, director, acting coach, artist, college professor, and musician. During a career that spanned more than 60 years, he performed not only in feature films but also in scores of television series, as well as appearing on various country music programs and talk shows. Television audiences, however, perhaps most closely associate Best with his role as the bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the action-comedy series The Dukes of Hazzard, which originally aired on CBS between 1979 and 1985. He reprised the role in 1997 and 2000 for the made-for-television movies The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! and The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood (2000).

Willa Beatrice Brown was an American aviator, lobbyist, teacher, and civil rights activist. She was the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license in the United States, the first African American woman to run for the United States Congress, first African American officer in the Civil Air Patrol, and first woman in the U.S. to have both a pilot's license and an aircraft mechanic's license.

Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler Sr. was an American politician from Kentucky. He represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate and served as its 44th and 49th governor. Aside from his political positions, he also served as the second Commissioner of Baseball from 1945 to 1951 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. His grandson, Ben Chandler, later served as congressman for Kentucky's Sixth District.

Earle Chester Clements was an American farmer and politician. He represented the state of Kentucky in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and was its 47th Governor, serving from 1947 to 1950. For three decades, he was the leader of a faction of the state's Democratic Party that stood in opposition to the faction led by two-time governor and senator A. B. "Happy" Chandler.

Blanton Long Collier was an American football head coach who coached at the University of Kentucky between 1954 and 1961 and for the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League (NFL) between 1963 and 1970. His 1964 Browns team won the NFL championship and remains the second most recent Cleveland professional sports team to win a title.

Bertram Thomas Combs was an American jurist and politician from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. After serving on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, he was elected the 50th Governor of Kentucky in 1959 on his second run for the office. Following his gubernatorial term, he was appointed to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by President Lyndon B. Johnson, serving from 1967 to 1970.

Garlin Murl Conner was a United States Army technical sergeant and first lieutenant in the Second World War. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, four Silver Stars, and the French Croix de guerre for his heroic actions in Italy and France during the war. During his campaigns, he was wounded three times. An attempt to upgrade Conner's Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor, the United States military's highest decoration for valor, took 22 years. On 29 March 2018, the White House announced President Trump would award the Medal of Honor to Garlin Murl Conner in a ceremony at the White House. On 26 June 2018, the president presented the medal to Pauline Conner, his widow, in a ceremony in the East Room.

Morris E. Crain was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II.

Robert Crittenden was an American lawyer who served as the first secretary of the Arkansas Territory from July 4, 1819, to April 8, 1829. He also served as acting governor of Arkansas Territory from July to December 1819. Crittenden co-founded the Rose Law Firm.

Henry Pierson Crowe (1899–1991) was a Marine of World War I, the Banana Wars, World War II, and the Korean War.

William James Crowe Jr. was a United States Navy admiral who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and as the ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Bill Clinton.

William Harold Cunningham is a former Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. He was elected to the court in November 2006 to represent the first Appellate District. He announced he would retire in early 2019.

William Prather Curlin Jr. is an American politician and lawyer from Kentucky. He is a former member of the United States House of Representatives.

Emma Didlake was an African-American supercentenarian and the oldest living American World War II veteran until her death on August 16, 2015 at age 111. She served in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.

Norman Eckley Edsall was a sailor in the United States Navy during the Spanish–American War.

Ernest Lee Fletcher is an American physician and politician. In 1998, he was elected to the first of three consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives; he resigned in 2003 after being elected the 60th governor of Kentucky and served until 2007. Prior to his entry into politics, Fletcher was a family practice physician and a Baptist lay minister. He is the second physician to be elected Governor of Kentucky; the first was Luke P. Blackburn in 1879. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Larry Claxton Flynt Jr. is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP). LFP mainly produces magazines, such as Hustler, and sexually graphic videos. Flynt has fought several high-profile legal battles involving the First Amendment, and has unsuccessfully run for public office. He is paralyzed from the waist down due to injuries sustained in a 1978 murder attempt by serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin. In 2003, Arena magazine listed him at No. 1 on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list.

Herschel Harper "Herky" Green was a World War II flying ace in the United States Army Air Forces. Green was the leading ace of the Fifteenth Air Force, shooting down 18 enemy aircraft and destroying 10 more on the ground.

Harlan Hobart Grooms was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Martin D. Hardin was a politician and lawyer from Kentucky. Born in Pennsylvania, his family immigrated to Kentucky when he was still young. He studied law under George Nicholas and commenced practice at Richmond, Kentucky. His cousin, future U.S. Representative Benjamin Hardin, studied in his law office. He represented Madison County in the Kentucky House of Representatives for a single term.

Ira Allen Haynes was a United States Army officer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He served in World War I.

Leigh Ann Hester is a United States Army National Guard soldier. While assigned to the 617th Military Police Company, a Kentucky Army National Guard unit out of Richmond, Kentucky, Hester received the Silver Star for her heroic actions on 20 March 2005 during an enemy ambush on a supply convoy near the town of Salman Pak, Iraq.

Walter Darlington "Dee" Huddleston was an American politician. He was a Democrat from Kentucky who represented the state in the United States Senate from 1973 until 1985. Huddleston lost his 1984 Senate re-election campaign to Mitch McConnell in an upset by about 5100 votes.

Paul E. Ison was the United States Marine Corps infantryman running crouched across "Death Valley", Okinawa in the iconic World War II photograph shot by photographer Bob Bailey, in which he is seen running across Death Valley dodging heavy machine gun fire during the Battle of Okinawa on May 10, 1945.

Husband Edward Kimmel was a United States Navy four-star admiral who served as the commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet (CINCPACFLT) during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was removed from that command after the attack, in December 1941, and was reverted back to his permanent two-star rank of rear admiral due to no longer holding a four-star assignment. He retired from the Navy in early 1942.

Lewis Fields Linn was a physician and politician who represented his home state of Missouri in the United States Senate for nearly a decade.

Kenneth Ray "Ken" Lucas is an American politician. Lucas, a Democrat, was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky's 4th congressional district from 1999 until 2005.

Leonard Foster Mason served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Battle of Guam where he was mortally wounded.

Marvin Hunter McIntyre was an American journalist and Presidential Secretary to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR).

Hugh Wilson McKee was an American naval officer in the 1870s who participated in the United States expedition to Korea in 1871.

Francis Gary Powers was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 incident.

Willie Sandlin was a soldier in the United States Army who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War I.

James Graves Scrugham was an American politician. He was a Representative, a Senator, and the 14th Governor of the U.S. state of Nevada. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

Luther Skaggs Jr. was a United States Marine who received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on the beachhead on Guam during World War II.

Augustus Owsley Stanley III was an American audio engineer and clandestine chemist. He was a key figure in the San Francisco Bay Area hippie movement during the 1960s and played a pivotal role in the decade's counterculture. Under the professional name Bear, he was the soundman for the rock band the Grateful Dead, whom he met when Ken Kesey invited them to an Acid Test party. As their sound engineer, Stanley frequently recorded live tapes behind his mixing board and developed their Wall of Sound sound system, one of the largest mobile public address systems ever constructed. Stanley also designed the band's trademark skull logo.

Harry Dean Stanton was an American actor, musician, and singer. In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films such as Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Dillinger (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), Alien (1979), Escape from New York (1981), Christine (1983), Repo Man (1984), Pretty in Pink (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Wild at Heart (1990), The Straight Story (1999), The Green Mile (1999), Alpha Dog (2006) and Inland Empire (2006). He had rare lead roles in Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) and Lucky (2017), his last film.

Benjamin Franklin Stapleton was the mayor of Denver, Colorado, for two periods, the first from 1923 to 1931 and the second from 1935 to 1947. He also served as a member of the Ku Klux Klan and as the Democratic Colorado State Auditor from 1933 to 1935.

Frank Albert Stubblefield, a Democrat, represented Kentucky in the United States House of Representatives.

Ernest Edison West is a former United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the Korean War.

Charles Young was an American soldier. He was the third African-American graduate of the United States Military Academy, the first black U.S. national park superintendent, first black military attaché, first black man to achieve the rank of colonel in the United States Army, and highest-ranking black officer in the regular army until his death in 1922.