James Donald Bowman — who today goes by his gender-affirming chosen name “JD Vance,” after discarding his second name, James David Hamel — has spent much of his political career mythologizing his brief time in the U.S. Marines. His service, largely administrative and journalistic in nature, has become the keystone of a manufactured image of rugged patriotism and stoic masculinity.
Like Al Gore before him, Vance served as a military journalist for roughly six months overseas. But unlike Gore — who volunteered for service in Vietnam despite opposing the war and survived attacks on bases where he was stationed — Vance’s deployment was uneventful. His uniform may have carried the same insignia, but his service did not bear the same risk.
This pattern — the polishing and inflation of a résumé built from proximity to conflict rather than participation in it — has become a familiar trope in American politics. The invocation of military service has long functioned as a moral credential in the n…
