Daniel Gade: He Doesn’t Identify as a Veteran.
Well, Only When It’s for Power or Profit.
When Daniel Gade ran for U.S. Senate in 2020, “COMBAT VETERAN” was the first thing Virginia voters saw. Not his doctorate. Not his policy positions. Not even his name. The door hangers that went into homes across the Commonwealth led with COMBAT VETERAN in bold red letters, followed by “SAME OATH. NEW MISSION!” - explicitly framing his Senate run as a continuation of military service.
Four years later, Dr. Daniel Gade sat down for an interview with @TheCivDiv and @VeteransInfoTap on Veterans Day 2024, following his October 29, 2024 Senate hearing testimony on veteran disability compensation. In that wide-ranging conversation about veteran policy, Gade explained his view that veteran identity is “negative” and “backward-looking” - like wearing a high school letter jacket at 50. The system, he argued, makes veterans “embrace their sickest selves” and get “stuck in amber.” He dismissed veteran service organizations as the “funny hat brigade” - people in garrison caps that members of Congress are “terrified by.”
As proof of his approach, he offered this:
“I don’t identify really as a veteran. Like when they in church when they say, ‘Hey, veterans stand up on Veteran Day,’ I just stay seated. You know why? Because I’m a civilian. I’m a civilian. I don’t view myself in that way. Because I don’t want to. Because it’s a it’s a it’s something I used to do, not something I am now.”
Something he used to do. Not something he is now.
Except when he’s running for Senate as a combat veteran. Or serving as Virginia’s Commissioner of Veterans Services. Or obtaining Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business certification for government contracts. Or testifying to Congress as a disabled veteran expert. Or building an entire career on being a disabled veteran - because that’s what actually opened the doors.
Then it’s very much something he is.
Watch the full interview: