A naval captain turned senate candidate claims he carries the scars of being ‘blown up’ in combat – but his service record calls this into question.
Hung Cao, 52, is running to unseat Tim Kaine, a Democrat, in the Virginia senate race after cruising to victory in the Republican primary.
Much of his campaign is built on his status as a war hero and claims he faced so much enemy fire in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia he is disabled.
‘I’m 100 per cent disabled because just from being blown up in combat many times and everything else, you know, knee, shoulders,’ he said on April 22, 2022, during a failed congressional run.
‘I’ve got more surgeries than you could possibly imagine.’
Hung Cao, 52, is running to unseat Tim Kaine, a Democrat , in the Virginia senate race after cruising to victory in the Republican primary
Cao is endorsed for the senate by Donald Trump and spouts much of the same rhetoric as the former president
Cao frequently claimed he had horrific scars from his naval career, as a direct result of being in combat, and that made him a better man than career politician Kaine.
‘Are you telling me your air-conditioned office where the worst thing that can happen for you is having a paper cut is the same as me getting, you know, blown up and shot at in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia?’ he told a podcast last week.
However, Cao’s military records do not show him being awarded a Purple Heart for being wounded or injured in action, according to USA Today.
Neither do they show a navy Combat Action Ribbon, awarded for ‘rendering satisfactory performance under enemy fire while actively participating in ground or surface combat engagement’.
He has never claimed to have earned either medal.
Cao has a Bronze Star, which is awarded for heroic or meritorious action, but the US Navy said there was no citation attached to it to explain what he did to earn it.
Cao (pictured with his son, who also joined the military) retired at the rank of captain in 2021 after his 25-year career
Cao frequently claimed he had horrific scars from his naval career, as a direct result of being in combat
He retired at the rank of captain in 2021 after his 25-year career as a ‘special operations explosive ordnance disposal/dive officer’.
Four retired US Army and Navy doctors reviewed Cao’s record and told USA Today for a badly wounded sailor, as Cao claimed to be, to not receive a Purple Heart or Combat Action Ribbon.
Cao did not respond well to questions about his military record and falsely claimed ‘the left-wing media’ was in cahoots with Kaine to make him look bad.
‘I want to give you all a window into what it’s like being a combat veteran who had the gall to run for public office against a career politician,’ he wrote in a long rant on Facebook.
‘Any veteran will read this with the same disgust. Imagine being asked to provide documentation of the dates and times Al Qaeda shot at you.
‘Imagine being asked, if you’re a disabled veteran, why you don’t have a Purple Heart?’
Cao then claimed anyone who questioned him ‘hate our military and veterans. There’s no other explanation for their behavior’.
Much of his campaign is built on his status as a war hero and claims he faced so much enemy fire in Afghanistan , Iraq , and Somalia he is disabled
Cao joined the Naval Academy after graduating from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
His campaign said only that Cao was a retired navy captain with 25 years of ‘honorable service to his country’.
‘His service is a matter of public record under his DD 214, as with any retired member of our armed forces,’ it said of his service record.
The US Naval Undersea Museum gave a rundown of Cao’s experience in 2021 when he was J3X Branch chief at the Pentagon, shortly before his retirement.
‘Captain Cao has excelled in his Navy career, qualifying as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer and a diving officer,’ it read.
‘As an EOD officer, he deployed multiple times to Iraq to evaluate IEDs to recommend countermeasures.
‘From 2013 to 2016, he commanded the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center.’
The US Naval Undersea Museum gave a rundown of Cao’s experience in 2021, using this photo, when he was J3X Branch chief at the Pentagon, shortly before his retirement
Cao talks up his military background in this campaign video
Cao fled Vietnam with his family as a four-year-old 14 hours before the fall of Saigon at the end of the war.
They escaped for West Africa where they lived for seven years while his father worked for an American international development agency, securing their passage to the US.
Cao then joined the Naval Academy after graduating from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
He also earned a masters degree in physics and attended fellowships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.
He lives in Purcellville, in northern Virginia, with his wife, April, and their five children.
Cao fled Vietnam with his family as a four-year-old 14 hours before the fall of Saigon at the end of the war
Cao is endorsed for the senate by Donald Trump and spouts much of the same rhetoric as the former president.
‘We are losing our country. You know it. But you also know you can’t say it. We’re forced to say that wrong is right,’ he said last July.
Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate in 2016, has been in public office for nearly three decades.
He served as mayor of Richmond and later as the Virginia’s lieutenant governor and governor. He was first elected to the Senate in 2012 and handily defeated a far-right challenger in 2018.
The Virginia senate race is one of a handful of key contests that will decide who has a majority in the upper house for the next two years.