section_path: Early life, military service, and education
section_name: Early life, military service, and education
paragraph_text: Early life, military service, and education
  
  Vance was born James Donald Bowman on August 2, 1984, in Middletown, Ohio, where he was also raised. He grew up in an Appalachian American culture, spending summers with relatives in Jackson, Kentucky. His parents are Beverly Carol Aikins (née Vance) and Donald Ray Bowman; they divorced when he was a toddler. Vance wrote in his 2016 book about being of Scots-Irish descent, but a 2025 report commissioned by Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party found no genealogical link between him and Ireland.
  
  After Bowman was adopted by his mother's third husband, Bob Hamel, his mother changed his name to James David Hamel to remove his father's first name and surname and to preserve an uncle's first name, David. Vance therefore kept his nickname, JD. His surname changed to hers after her parents became his caretakers.
  
  Vance has written that his childhood was marked by poverty and abuse, and that his mother struggled with drug addiction. He and his elder sister, Lindsey, were raised primarily by their maternal grandparents, James and Bonnie Vance (née Blanton), whom they called "Papaw" and "Mamaw".
  
  After graduating from Middletown High School in 2003, Vance enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, serving as a military journalist with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. During his four years of service, he was deployed to the Iraq War in 2005 for six months in a non-combat role, writing articles and taking photographs. He attained the rank of corporal, and his decorations included the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
  
  In 2007, Vance left the military and used the G.I. Bill to study at Ohio State University. He graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree summa cum laude in political science and philosophy. In 2010, Vance entered Yale Law School, where he won a prestigious position on The Yale Law Journal. During his first year, Professor Amy Chua persuaded Vance to begin writing his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.
  
  Vance also initiated a rapport with Peter Thiel after attending his 2011 talk at Yale. In 2010–2011, Vance wrote for David Frum 's "FrumForum" website under the name J. D. Hamel. Although Hillbilly Elegy states that he adopted his grandparents' surname of Vance upon his marriage in 2014, the name change actually occurred in April 2013, as he was about to graduate from Yale. Vance obtained his Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Yale Law School in May 2013.