Was JD Vance a Marine? A look at the military record of Trump's VP pick

Former President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he selected Ohio Sen. JD Vance , a Marine veteran and a former fierce critic of Trump , as his running mate for the 2024 election.

Vance, 39, is the first post-9/11 veteran to find a spot on a major party ticket and the first veteran on a major party ticket since John McCain in 2008.

Vance’s military career

Born to a working-class family in Middletown, Ohio, Vance enlisted in the military directly out of high school. He joined the Marines in 2003 and served as a combat correspondent – or military journalist – until 2007, according to military news site Task & Purpose .

In his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy , as excerpted by Military.com, Vance described the press as “the holy grail of the Marine Corps public affairs: the biggest audience and the highest stakes.”

For the last nine months of his service, Vance was the media relations officer for the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, North Carolina, one of the largest military bases on the East Coast.

Vance’s time in Iraq

Vance was deployed to Iraq for six months in late 2005. Based on his memoir , he would “attach to different units to get a sense of their daily routine,” escort civilian press, and write stories about individual marines.

On a mission into Iraqi territory, Vance said he experienced a pivotal moment when he and his unit interacted with local school children. As they handed out school supplies to the children, Vance gave a small eraser to a boy.

After the boy received the eraser, Vance said, “His face briefly lit up with joy before he ran away to his family, holding his two-cent prize aloft in triumph. I have never seen such excitement on a child’s face.”

Vance described how growing up with limited means and spending time overseas made him who he is today.

“That resentment didn’t vanish in an instant,” he said, “but as I stood and surveyed the mass of children of a war-torn nation… I began to appreciate how lucky I was: born in the greatest country on earth, every modern convenience at my fingertips … At that moment, I resolved to be the type of man who would smile when someone gave him an eraser. I haven’t quite made it there, but without that day in Iraq, I wouldn’t be trying.”

Melissa Cruz is an elections reporting fellow who focuses on voter access issues for the USA TODAY Network. You can reach her at mcruz@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter, at @MelissaWrites22.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Was JD Vance a Marine? A look at the military record of Trump's VP pick