Vance credits service in Marine Corps for teaching him ‘how to live like an adult’

Long before J.D. Vance became the Republican nominee for vice president, he was known as Cpl. James D. Hamel, a combat correspondent in the Marine Corps.

Vance, now a senator from Ohio, enlisted after graduating from high school in 2003 and served for four years, including a six-month stint in Iraq beginning in late 2005.

The experience “taught me how to live like an adult,” Vance wrote in his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” It also reportedly makes him the first Marine veteran to be a vice-presidential candidate.

“It was the Marine Corps that first gave me an opportunity to truly fail, made me take that opportunity, and then, when I did fail, gave me another chance anyway.”

— J.D. Vance