West Point alumni group scraps prestigious award celebrations honoring Tom Hanks

The alumni group at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has scrapped an official award celebration for Tom Hanks. The West Point Association of Graduates was scheduled to host a ceremony and parade honoring the 69-year-old actor and veterans advocate on Sept. 25.

A U.S. official who said he is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed the news, which was first reported in The Washington Post. The official told NPR that Hanks will still get the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award, and did not state why the formalities had been abandoned.

The Post said the decision was announced in an internal email sent to faculty by Mark Bieger, president and CEO of the West Point Association of Graduates, a copy of which was obtained by the newspaper. In the email, the Post said that Bieger stated the Army needed to focus on its core mission of “preparing cadets to lead, fight, and win.”

Hanks’ long history of veteran advocacy

A statement from the alumni association announced the award in June, praising Hanks for his ongoing support of veterans, noting his role as a national spokesperson for the World War II memorial in Washington D.C., his help with fundraising efforts for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in D.C., and his work as a spokesperson for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, which supports military veterans and their caregivers. Hanks has also appeared in and produced many movies centered on U.S. military stories including the 1998 World War II drama Saving Private Ryan and 1994’s Forrest Gump, in which Hanks’ character serves in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

“Tom Hanks has done more for the positive portrayal of the American service member, more for the caring of the American veteran, their caregivers and their family, and more for the American space program and all branches of government than many other Americans,” said West Point Association of Graduates board chairman Robert A. McDonald in the June statement.

“To have my first ever visit to the Academy be to accept such an honor as the Thayer Award is simply astounding,” said Hanks in the same statement. “To be recognized by an institution whose graduates have shaped our country’s history through selfless service is both humbling and meaningful.”

Neither the West Point Association of Graduates nor West Point Military Academy responded to NPR’s requests for comment. Representatives for Hanks also did not respond.

Readjustment under Trump

West Point has been going through a period of readjustment since the start of the Trump administration. In February, West Point eliminated student clubs for women and minority students following Trump’s crackdown on diversity programs in federal institutions.

And in January, Sens. Katie Britt and Ted Cruz together with U.S. Rep. Keith Self – all Republicans – introduced bills in both the House and Senate to restore the words “Duty, Honor, Country” to West Point’s official mission statement after they had been removed last year. (It was Army General Douglas MacArthur who uttered these words in a speech he gave in 1962 as a Thayer Award winner. “Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be,” MacArthur said.)

“For centuries, the United States Army has set the global standard for military excellence because its leaders embrace a lifetime of selfless service and embody the values of ‘Duty, Honor, Country,'” said Sen. Cruz in a statement about the bills. “West Point’s removal of these core values from its mission statement risks eroding the foundation of American military leadership.” (Both bills are currently still in the “introduced” phase.)

Meanwhile, Hanks has been public about his support for Democratic presidential candidates in the past. His name has appeared on lists of celebrities who endorsed former President Joe Biden during his 2020 campaign. After Biden’s victory, Hanks hosted the Celebrating America televised special which was organized by the Biden Inaugural Committee. He got behind Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. Obama awarded Hanks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country’s highest civilian honors, in 2016. The actor has also been outspoken in his criticisms of President Trump. In remarks at the Rome Film Festival in 2016, captured by the Associated Press, the actor called the then-Republican candidate a “self-involved gas bag.”

Instituted in 1958, the Sylvanus Thayer Award is the most highly valued civilian accolade given by West Point. Its recipients include Henry Kissinger, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bob Hope.

In an email to NPR, retired U.S. Army brigadier general and professor emeritus of history at West Point Ty Seidule said the history of the Thayer Award has until now remained pretty uncontroversial. The ceremony is rarely canceled or postponed. Unexpected snowfall upended the celebrations for author, editor and former ambassador Clare Boothe Luce in 1979, and the events of Sept. 11, 2001 caused them to be postponed for U.S. senator Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat.

“The award isn’t a heavy lift,” Seidule said. “It’s a parade and a dinner. Cadets love to rub elbows with some of America’s greatest citizens.”

Seidule said that, over the years, the award recipients have come from both sides of the political aisle and from all walks of American life. “West Point is a staunchly apolitical institution,” Seibule said. “I feel for everyone at West Point trying to navigate an administration whose decisions are capricious and cruel.”

Seidule said he doesn’t buy the idea that Hanks’ ceremony was axed in order for West Point to focus on its military goals: “West Point is capable of focusing on the Secretary of Defense priorities and still having a parade and dinner.”