SEPTEMBER 1, 2025 – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth honored a local police department for being a recipient of the 2025 Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award during a city hall ceremony in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Originally announced July 7, 2025, the Hendersonville Police Department was one of 15 organizations to receive the coveted Freedom Award, the highest U.S. government honor presented to employers for supporting military reserve component employees.
Hegseth, a former National Guardsman who has ties to Tennessee, spoke highly of the ESGR and said he was honored to make the trip from Washington to present the award.
“This place means a lot to me; what these men and women do means a lot to me; [and] what ESGR does means a lot to me,” Hegseth said.
He went on to explain that he wishes every child in America could see and interact with those who serve in order to counter the more superficial “celebrity clickbait culture” that he sees as being pervasive in our society.
“If you want to look for heroes … just look around this room,” Hegseth told those in attendance, noting that the manner in which they respond to unknown daily contingencies is demonstrative of their heroism.
Hegseth went on to commend the department’s 15 reserve component service members for choosing to serve part time in the military in addition to their already hazardous full-time jobs.
“That’s the bedrock of what a country is built on; that’s how you know that you’re not just free, but you live free because you’re committed to the very service at a baseline level,” he said.
The secretary also assured the department employees that, just as the Hendersonville Police Department has their backs, so does the entire chain of command, including President Donald J. Trump.
“If the top has your back, as President Trump does, or if the secretary of defense has your back, or the attorney general … that means you can go out — step out on a difficult issue, whatever it is — and do your job the right way, and execute knowing you have that support,” Hegseth said, also noting that ESGR supports the service members and their families at a macro level.
Hegseth wound down his remarks by once again thanking the police department for supporting the part-time service members.
“Thanks for what you do with this community [and] for your willingness to let [the service member employees] go elsewhere, to serve the country as well,” he said.
“It’s our job to make sure they’re well served by the plans we give them, and the missions we give them, and [that we] bring them home safe,” he added.
ESGR began the Freedom Award program in 1996 to recognize exceptional employer support, with 370 honorees to date.
In addition to the Hendersonville Police Department, the following 14 organizations also received the award in 2025:
- Cox Enterprises; Atlanta
- GE Aerospace; West Chester, Ohio
- GM Financial; Fort Worth, Texas
- Honeywell; Minneapolis
- Kimberly-Clark Corporation; Neenah, Wisconsin
- Anchorage Fire Department; Anchorage, Alaska
- Coppell Independent School District; Coppell, Texas
- Metropolitan Airports Commission; Minneapolis
- Mike Monroney; Oklahoma City
- Air Aviation; Allen, Texas
- Art C. Klein Construction Inc.; Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Boyd Jones; Omaha, Nebraska
- Graham Construction; Des Moines, Iowa
- MI Technical Solutions; Chesapeake, Virginia
By Matthew Olay, DOD News