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On Memorial Day Monday, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao sat down with Carl Higbie on FRONTLINE and reminded Americans what this holiday is really about: the cost of liberty and the names of those who paid the ultimate price. His blunt message — that you don’t give up on your country and you don’t abandon the families of the fallen — cut through the noise of Washington and spoke straight to the heart of patriotic duty.
Cao didn’t come to that microphone as a career politician but as a proven leader who stepped into the Acting Secretary role amid turbulence in April, and he has been traveling the fleet and meeting Marines and sailors ever since. His rise to the top civilian spot in the Department of the Navy reflects a serious, results-oriented approach to leadership that this country desperately needs right now.
Across the fleet, Memorial Day ceremonies were solemn and reverent, and Cao used every platform he could — from shore ceremonies to interviews — to place the focus where it belongs: on sacrifice, not politics. That willingness to put the nation and its fallen first is exactly the kind of leadership that stands in stark contrast to the pampered Washington class that too often treats our warriors as a political afterthought.
It’s time for honest talk: if we are going to ask our young to fight and, if necessary, die for this country, we must stop shortchanging them with budget games and cultural rot. The elites who obsess over signal-boosting culture wars while neglecting shipyards, munitions, and troop families are failing both the mission and the memory of those who died defending our freedoms. No patriot can accept that double standard.
Cao has also been clear about what the Navy needs to win future fights — more ships, sharper focus on warfighting culture, and a return to hiring and promoting by merit and courage rather than by political fashion. That straightforward agenda is exactly what will keep America strong and honor those we lost by ensuring their sacrifice wasn’t in vain.
If you love this country, you owe it to our fallen to listen to men like Hung Cao when they say you don’t give up on your country and you don’t abandon your own. This Memorial Day, hold your family tight, teach your children why these graves matter, and demand from Washington the resources and respect our servicemen and women deserve — that’s how we honor the dead and secure the living.
