General earns Dutch gold medal of merit

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WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  An Air Force general was decorated Sept. 9 with the Dutch Medal of Merit in Gold at the Netherlands Embassy here.

Maj. Gen. John L. "Jack" Hudson, assistant deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for international affairs, received the prestigious award for his role in bringing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to the royal Netherlands air force.

According to the Netherlands minister of defense decree, General Hudson, as the JSF program executive officer, made a substantial contribution to the highly complex Dutch decision-making process.

“In the initial phase of the development of the F-35, General Hudson was faced with extremely complex technical and organizational challenges and in that respect made a number of very difficult and important decisions,” the decree read. “Under these circumstances, in which the pressure from his own organization was considerable, he never lost sight of the interests of the partners in the program, particularly those of the Netherlands.”

The minister of defense of the Netherlands may present foreign military members the medal of merit in bronze, silver or gold for their extraordinary personal conduct and commitment supporting Dutch interests in general and the armed forces in particular.

“General Hudson was instrumental in convincing the Dutch Parliament that it was very nice to join the JSF program,” said Lt. Gen. Dick Starink, commander-in-chief of the royal Netherlands air force. “Once we became true partners, a lot of bureaucratic work had to be done to make it work.”

The F-35 will eventually replace the F-16 as the Netherlands’ front-line fighter aircraft. The United States also has JSF partnerships with the United Kingdom, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Turkey and Australia, General Hudson said.

“It’s a very solid partnership,” General Hudson said. “We worked very hard, but we worked very well together. We will build this airplane and put it into our peacetime force structure so we can train together and fight together if we need to.”

“Such a program needs an important leader, and we have found such a leader,” General Starink said of General Hudson. “We are very grateful for what he did.”

“This is an absolutely great honor to receive this from the Netherlands and from my friends and partners in the Dutch air force,” General Hudson said.