Vance had a fairly standard accelerated education on Medusa V, a human colony in the Medusa system. Medusa V as a whole is a believer in allowing children the freedom to explore their chosen path after minimal standardized basics. While a firm grounding in general education is encouraged, it is by no means required. Vance's interests and primary focus's in school were Flight training/certification and Advanced Engineering and Physics. This continued through Vance's graduation from the Medusa V Institute of Advanced Studies. Shortly after this, Vance accepted an appointment to Starfleet Academy with the intention of following in his father's footsteps.
Vance summarized his family history in his own words:
"It was a storybook romance; father saved mother, then mother saved father, then they fall in love.
Shortly after that they realize the consequences of their actions: Me. Marriage ensues, and then siblings; things pretty much went downhill from there.
Marie was born three years after I was; we got along pretty well, but she was always a lot more bookish then I was.
A few years after James was born Dad was in a serious shuttle accident. Mom wanted him to quiet down and stay with her at her new teaching position at the Institute. Dad wanted nothing to do with it and left. He kept piloting until he was medically discharged after wrecking his shuttle to save a Ferengi trade delegation with an insane piloting maneuver. After that he switched to civilian ships and hasn't stopped yet . . .
Mom changed her name back and finished raising Marie and James on her own. Me? I always wanted to follow my fathers' path as a pilot."
Vance graduated 29th in his class at the academy, with primary focus on Flight School and Flight Operations and a secondary focus on Engineering. His academy exit evaluation is quoted as follows:
Aside from arrogance and a tendency to leap before looking Vance made it through the Academy as an exemplary student. His love of flying motivated him to break several Academy flight records, as well as maintain an excellent academic record.
In 2364, Vance completed his cadet cruise aboard the USS Feinstein, NCC-12738. In 2365, he was promoted to ensign and assigned to the 17th Blue Devils Fighter Squadron (USS Antilles, Galaxy Class ) In 2367, he was given a classified assignment to the 31st "Exploding Gophers" Developmental Flight Wing for inclusion in the Mars MMI (Mind/Machine Interface) Development Program. The Mars MMI project was completed in 2370. While partially successful, the implants are prohibitive for general use. Following the project, he was reassigned to the 42nd Scarlet Raiders (USS Trigun, Akira class). He was declined promotion and transfer to Engineering where he was eventually promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade. In 2373, he was reassigned as Squadron XO of the 23rd Hellcats Squadron (USS Horus, Akira Class). In 2374, he went missing in action following his heroic efforts to defend the Horus during a Cardasian ambush, Lt. Devloch's fighter was recovered by a Cardasian scout checking the status of the ambushed ships.
Horus Incident Summary:
"During a daring raid into Cardassian territory the USS Horus was severally damaged and the 23rd Hellcats squadron was believed lost in combat with combined Cardasian-Dominion forces. While Vance did survive he and his Peregrine were severally damaged and drifted for quite some time before being picked up. During initial questioning by his Cardasian captors scans indicated the presence of unknown cybernetic implants. Vance was tortured and his implants subjected to intensive scans and electric shocks. After Lt. Devloch's recovery it was determined that repair or removal of the Mars Class MMI implants was not possible. Unfortunately the implants had become sufficiently integrated with the subjects piloting experiences that piloting of any type was not recommended and Fighter Combat was not possible."
In 2376, Lieutenant Devloch was returned to the Federation as part of the general prisoner exchange that took place after the cessation of hostilities. Following reconstructive surgery along with therapeutic attempts to restore function to the Mars Class MMI implant Lt. Devloch was deemed not fit for piloting duty, and was assigned as engineering specialist for Star Base 249. In 2378, he was transferred to the Daystrom Institute for further study into Advanced Nonlinear Mathematics, Subspace Particle Engineering, and Theoretical Warp field Physics. There, he was promoted to full lieutenant and completed a PhD in Theoretical Particle Engineering.
In 2379, Vance was reassigned as Chief of Engineering USS Rothschild (Norway class) before being transferred to Deep Space Nine for accumulated mandatory leave and medical/psychological workup.
Vance is perfectly healthy, the only problem he seems to have is persistent headaches due to extremely damaged MMI hardware. Vance was part of an experimental program to create a functional fighter/pilot Mind Machine Interface. While this program was a success the subsequent combination of battle damage, blunt force trauma, and Cardasian interrogation caused irreparable damage to Vance's implants. Unfortunately due to the complex nature of the neural linkages removal was impossible due to the high probability of permanent neural damage.
Vance is a highly efficient engineer. While things seem to frequently work out for the best (at least recently). Vance always seems to see the darker side of things. And when there is no darker side he tends to get sulky and depressed. Vance used to be a very happy and upbeat sort of person. Oddly enough he was happy about how badly things seemed to always turn out for him. Since the incident however, this trend seems to have reversed itself completely leaving Vance depressed with how well things are going. Vance's interests include chess, scrounging materials for personal projects, simple flight simulations, and advanced molecular engineering
