“The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Virginia, a decorated Navy veteran, has made repeated references to becoming disabled after he was ‘blown up’ in combat, and has stressed that he has scars from his military service while Democratic incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine got rich from the safety of Capitol Hill,” USA Today reports.
“Yet the Navy service record for Hung Cao, who won the GOP primary in June, does not show a Purple Heart award, the commendation given to troops who have suffered wounds from ‘direct or indirect result of enemy action’ that required medical attention. Nor does his record indicate that he received the Navy’s Combat Action Ribbon, which requires that a sailor ‘must have rendered satisfactory performance under enemy fire while actively participating in ground or surface combat engagement.’”
