56 Military personnel from Kansas

Milburn G. "Mel" Apt was a U.S. Air Force test pilot, and the first man to attain speeds faster than Mach 3. He was killed after separating from the Bell X-2 in his escape capsule during the record-setting flight that exceeded Mach 3.

Erwin Russell Bleckley was a United States Army aviator during World War I, and posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor, killed in action on October 6, 1918, near the "lost battalion". Bleckley entered service as a member of the Kansas National Guard, was commissioned as an artillery officer, then volunteered for aviation training and duty. His was one of four Medals of Honor awarded to members of the Air Service.

William Wallace Bunten was an American politician from Kansas. He served as mayor of Topeka, Kansas, having been elected to a four-year term in 2005 and re-elected in 2009. Before being elected mayor, he served in the Kansas House of Representatives from 1962 to 1990 and in the Kansas Senate from 2002 to 2004. He previously ran for mayor in 2001 and in a special election in 2003. Bunten was a member of the Republican Party. He died of complications of pneumonia on February 29, 2020.

John Stanley Carroll is an American politician who served as a state representative and state senator from Hawaii as a Republican. Since then, he has become a perennial candidate for multiple statewide offices in Hawaii.

Adna Romanza Chaffee Jr. was an officer in the United States Army, called the "Father of the Armored Force" for his role in developing the U.S. Army's tank forces.

Clark McAdams Clifford was an American lawyer who served as an important political adviser to Democratic presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. His official government positions were White House Counsel (1946–1950), Chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board (1963–1968), and Secretary of Defense (1968–1969); Clifford was also influential in his role as an unofficial, informal presidential adviser in various issues. A successful Washington lawyer, he was known for his elite clientele, charming manners, and impeccable suits.

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Herbert Ball Crosby was a career officer in the United States Army. A veteran of the Spanish–American War and World War I, he attained the rank of major general as the Army's Chief of Cavalry.

Robert Joseph Dole is an American retired politician, statesman, and attorney who represented Kansas in the U.S House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969 and in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1996, serving as the Republican Leader of the United States Senate from 1985 until 1996. He was the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 election and the party's vice presidential nominee in the 1976 election.

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, GCB, OM was an American politician and soldier who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he became a five-star general in the Army and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of Normandy in 1944–45 from the Western Front.

Robert Fred Ellsworth was an American legislator and diplomat. He served as the United States Permanent Representative to NATO between 1969 and 1971. He had previously served three terms as a Republican Member of Congress from Kansas, from 1961 to 1967, and as an Assistant to the President during the presidency of Richard Nixon; under President Gerald Ford, he was Deputy Secretary of Defense. Ellsworth also served as assistant to the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission.

Maj Gen Joe Henry Engle, USAF, Ret. is an American pilot, aeronautical engineer and former NASA astronaut. He was the commander of two Space Shuttle missions including STS-2, the program's second orbital flight. He also participated in the Shuttle program's Approach and Landing Tests. Engle is one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the Air Force and NASA.

Ronald Lee Ermey was an American film, television and voice actor, and Marine drill instructor. He achieved fame for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Ermey was also a United States Marine Corps staff sergeant and an honorary gunnery sergeant.

Admiral Harry Donald Felt was an aviator in the United States Navy who led U.S. carrier strikes during World War II and later served as commander in chief of Pacific Command (CINCPAC) from 1958 to 1964.

Robert Michael Gates is an American intelligence analyst, and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. He was originally appointed by President George W. Bush and was retained for service by President Barack Obama. Gates began his career serving as an officer in the United States Air Force but was quickly recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Gates served for 26 years in the CIA and the National Security Council, and was Director of Central Intelligence under President George H. W. Bush. After leaving the CIA, Gates became president of Texas A&M University and was a member of several corporate boards. Gates served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, that studied the lessons of the Iraq War.

Myron Virgil George was a U.S. Representative from Kansas.

Wallace Harry Graham was the Physician to the President (1945-1953) during the presidency of Harry S. Truman. Wallace Harry Graham was born to James Walter and Elizabeth (Veneman) Graham on October 9, 1910, in the northeast Kansas town of Highland. In 1919, he moved with his family to Kansas City, Missouri, where his father, a physician opened a practice. Graham graduated from Paseo High School in 1928, and attended the University of Missouri for one year. He transferred to Warrensburg State Teachers' College where he completed his B.S. degree in 1932. Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, awarded him a medical degree in 1935 after which he completed internships at Kansas City (MO) General Hospital, Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; and, Cook County General Hospital, Chicago.

Tyler Nicklaus Hague is an American flight test engineer and a NASA astronaut of the class of 2013. Selected to be a flight engineer on the International Space Station, his first launch was on Soyuz MS-10, which aborted shortly after take-off on 11 October 2018. His second launch, on 14 March 2019, was successful, taking him and his fellow Soyuz MS-12 crew members to join ISS Expedition 59/60.

Denver David Hargis was a U.S. Representative from Kansas from 1959 to 1961.

Paul Randall Harrington was an American orthopaedic surgeon. He is best known as the designer of the Harrington Rod, the first device for the straightening and immobilization of the spine inside the body. It entered common use in the early 1960s and remained the gold standard for scoliosis surgery until the late 1990s. During this period over one million people benefited from Harrington's procedure.

Walter Joseph "Wally" Hickel was an American businessman, real estate developer, and politician. He worked as a construction worker and eventually became a construction company owner/operator during Alaska's territorial days. Following World War II, Hickel became heavily involved with real estate development, building residential subdivisions, shopping centers and hotels. Hickel entered politics in the 1950s during Alaska's battle for statehood and remained politically active for the rest of his life.

Joseph Frank Keaton, known professionally as Buster Keaton, was an American actor, comedian, film director, producer, screenwriter, and stunt performer. He is best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929" when he "worked without interruption" on a series of films that make him "the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies". His career declined afterward with a loss of artistic independence when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, his wife divorced him, and he descended into alcoholism. He recovered in the 1940s, remarried, and revived his career as an honored comic performer for the rest of his life, earning an Honorary Academy Award in 1959.

William Gregg King Jr. was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force (USAF). After service with the United States Army in World War II, he joined the USAF in 1947. He helped establish the Eastern Test Range at Cape Canaveral, Florida, was project officer for the SM-62 Snark cruise missile, helped initiate the WS-117L military satellite program, worked on the SAMOS reconnaissance satellite, commanded the Air Force Satellite Control Facility, and was director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Project A.

Herman Fred Krueger was an American politician and aviator who served in the Wyoming House of Representatives and as the Speaker of the House as a Democrat.

Bill Kurtis is an American television journalist, producer, narrator, and news anchor. He was also the host of a number of A&E crime and news documentary shows, including Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files. Previously, he anchored The CBS Morning News, and was the longtime anchor at WBBM-TV, the CBS-owned and -operated TV station in Chicago. Kurtis is currently the scorekeeper/announcer for National Public Radio (NPR)'s news comedy/quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, as well as serving as the host of Through the Decades, a documentary-style news magazine seen on CBS/Weigel Broadcasting's digital multicast network, Decades syndicated subchannel.

Alfred Mossman Landon was an American politician from the Republican Party. He served as the twenty-sixth Governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1937. He was the Republican Party's nominee in the 1936 presidential election, but was defeated in a landslide by incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt who won the electoral college vote 523 to 8.

John Clifford Hodges Lee was a career US Army engineer, who rose to the rank of lieutenant general and commanded the Communications Zone (ComZ) in the European Theater of Operations during World War II.

Myron Thomas Liggett was an American folk sculptor.

George H. Mallon was an officer in the United States Army who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War I.

Walter Lewis McVey Jr. was a United States Representative from Kansas.

Dennis Moore is an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Representative for Kansas's 3rd congressional district, from 1999 until 2011. He is a member of the Kansas Democratic Party.

Horace Ladd Moore was a U.S. Representative from Kansas.

Ross Allen Myers is an American naval aviator and a vice admiral in the United States Navy, who served as deputy commander of the United States Cyber Command from May 2019 to September 2020. He was nominated in March 2020 to be the commander of the United States Tenth Fleet/U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, replacing retiring VADM Timothy J. White. As a naval aviator, he has commanded several warships and military units, including fleet replacement squadron, Carrier air wing, and air group.

Richard Dale Nichols was an American banker and politician who served one-term as the U.S. Representative from the 5th Congressional District of Kansas.

Danny John Petersen 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 the Vietnam War.

Frank Emmanuel Petersen Jr. was a United States Marine Corps lieutenant general. He was the first African-American Marine Corps aviator and the first African-American Marine Corps general.

Michael Richard Pompeo is an American politician, diplomat, businessman, and attorney who, since April 2018, has been serving as 70th United States secretary of state. He is a former United States Army officer and was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January 2017 until April 2018.

Wesley Wentz Posvar (1925–2001) was the fifteenth Chancellor (1967–1991) of the University of Pittsburgh.

Dennis Lynn Rader is an American serial killer known as BTK or the BTK Strangler. Between 1974 and 1991, Rader killed ten people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, and sent taunting letters to police and newspapers describing the details of his crimes. After a decade-long hiatus, Rader resumed sending letters in 2004, leading to his 2005 arrest and subsequent guilty plea. He is serving ten consecutive life sentences at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Prospect Township, Butler County, Kansas.

Samuel J. Reader (1836–1914) was an American diarist and artist who wrote about his experiences living in Bleeding Kansas and the American Civil War.

John Jacob Rhodes Jr. was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Republican Party, Rhodes was elected as a U.S. Representative from the state of Arizona. He was the Minority Leader in the House 1973-81, where he pressed a conservative agenda.

George Seanor Robb was an officer in the United States Army who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War I. He later served as the elected Republican Kansas State Auditor from 1935 to 1961.

Charles Patrick Roberts is an American politician of the Republican Party who has been serving as the senior United States Senator from Kansas since 1997. Roberts served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1997.

Roy Rudolf Romer is an American politician, who served as the 39th Governor of Colorado and served as the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District from 2000 to 2006.

Keith George Sebelius was an American politician who served in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican.

Dean Edwards Smith was an American men's college basketball head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Smith coached from 1961 to 1997 and retired with 879 victories, which was the NCAA Division I men's basketball record at that time. Smith had the ninth-highest winning percentage of any men's college basketball coach (77.6%). During his tenure as head coach, North Carolina won two national championships and appeared in 11 Final Fours. Smith played college basketball at the University of Kansas, where he won a national championship in 1952 playing for Hall of fame coach Phog Allen.

Harold Dewey Smith was an American civil servant who served as director of the United States Bureau of the Budget during the Second World War.

Earl Winfield Spencer Jr. was a pioneering U.S. Navy pilot who served as the first commanding officer of Naval Air Station San Diego. He was the first husband of Wallis Simpson, who later went on to marry Edward VIII.

Duane D. Thiessen is a retired Lieutenant General in the United States Marine Corps, and is the past commander of the United States Marine Corps Forces Pacific, serving from September 2, 2010, until his retirement on August 7, 2012. Lt. General Thiessen is currently serving as President and CEO of the National Naval Aviation Museum Foundation located on Naval Air Station Pensacola.

George Richard Tiller was an American physician from Wichita, Kansas. He gained national attention as the medical director of Women's Health Care Services, which was one of only three abortion clinics nationwide at the time which provided late termination of pregnancy.

Samuel S. Triplett was a United States Navy sailor and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Spanish–American War.

Lyle Wesley Waggoner was an American actor, sculptor, presenter, travel trailer salesman, and model, known for his work on The Carol Burnett Show from 1967 to 1974, and for playing the role of Steve Trevor and Steve Trevor Jr. on Wonder Woman from 1975 to 1979.

Addison Morton Walker was an American comic strip writer, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954. He signed Addison to some of his strips.

Jack Bertrand Weinstein is an inactive Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Until his entry into inactive senior status on February 10, 2020, he maintained a full docket of cases.

Harry Hines Woodring was an American politician. A Democrat, he was the 25th Governor of Kansas and was Secretary of War in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration from 1936 to 1940. He was also the United States Assistant Secretary of War from 1933 to 1936.

John Clarence Woods was a United States Army master sergeant who, with Joseph Malta, carried out the Nuremberg executions of ten former top leaders of the Third Reich on October 16, 1946, after they were sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials. Time magazine credited him with 347 executions to that date during a 15-year career. According to later research, a number of 60 to 70 over a period of two years is more credible.