Served in Iraq, and ended his 4 years with an honorable discharge. Nothing to be ashamed of there, the majority of the military is not actually fighting in combat- and him admitting as much is much better than those who claim war stories they didn't earn.

It's a perfectly respectable rank to reach before separating at 4 years, on the Army side it's not uncommon either. I have lots to make fun of and critique in Vance, but his military service isn't one of those things.

But Vance is such a pissant on most things that military service hardly makes up for deficiencies. It’s like giving points to Timothy McVeigh or something.

So, significantly longer. He was an officer (Vance was enlisted) which is both a plus and minus depending who you ask his service included dozens of combat flights and he, like Vance, exited service with an honorable discharge. Appreciate both mens' service, Kelly has a much longer record of serving his country though.

At first blush it seems JD (or whatever he called itself then) wasn’t an overachiever. But then Marines always did rank differently.

There are literally 10s of thousands of vets who served honorably but never saw combat. I think we have better things to ping him on than his honorable military service.

The Army was growing because of Vietnam, so there were huge org charts with lots of empty spots. I was drafted (thanks, LBJ) and was SP5 about 19 months later.

I think there is more retention of people in the all-volunteer Army, so the slots don't open as often as when there were many draftees serving.

but I had in-demand communication skills set for the situation.

He did four years and left honorably, so he did the minimum. It’s just a footnote.