The Chapter of Orders decided to award the Order of Viesturs, Class 1 and appointed Lt-Gen Frederic Benjamin Hodges as the Commander of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Viesturs on 27 March 2018.
When presenting the highest state decoration, President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis thanked Lieutenant General Frederik Benjamin Hodges for his contribution in strengthening the security of the Baltic region and the decisions made. They have contributed to enhancing the presence of Allied forces in the Baltic States since 2012 when Mr Hodges was appointed the Commanding General of NATO Allied Land Force.
Frederick Benjamin Hodges supported the initiative to increase the presence of US forces in Latvia personally by sending US helicopters UH-60 Black Hawk to Latvia and their maintenance personnel to support the US Strong Europe Initiative and the Atlantic Resolve Operation, whose leadership was taken over in November 2014. The US policy has been clear and decisive when forwarding troopers and armoured fighting vehicles to the Baltic States for a permanent presence on a rotational basis in the Adazi Military Base, as well as forwarding US troopers and helicopters to the Lielvarde Air Force Base.
In early 2017, Frederick Benjamin Hodges also personally promoted the sending of the Armoured Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) and the Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) to Europe, including the Baltic States.
Under the leadership of Lt-Gen F.B.Hodges, the US Army Europe has made a significant contribution to the development of the National Armed Forces in Latvia by providing military support to the cooperation initiatives by the US Army and the National Armed Forces (NAF). Ensuring participation of the NAF units in the annual Allied Spirit VI international military exercise under the command of the US Army Europe held in Hohenfels in Germany from 8 March to 31 March 2017 can be mentioned as a significant accomplishment. Approximately 500 Latvian soldiers and 130 military equipment units participated in the exercise, which has been the largest engagement of the Latvian NAF in military exercises abroad to date.