West Point alumni group cancels award honouring Tom Hanks

An alumni group at the US Military Academy at West Point cancelled an event that would have honoured actor Tom Hanks with one of its most prestigious awards, saying that cancelling it would allow the academy to focus on preparing its cadets for the future, according to an e-mail sent by the group’s president.

Mr Hanks, 69, was set to receive the Sylvanus Thayer Award, which is given annually by the West Point Association of Graduates to an American citizen who exemplifies the West Point motto “Duty, honour, country”.

The award is named in honour of Sylvanus Thayer, nicknamed the Father of the Military Academy.

The group’s president, Mr Mark Bieger, who is a retired colonel in the US Army, said in an e-mail on Sept 5 that the academy “will not be holding the Thayer Award ceremony”, which had been scheduled for Sept 25.

The decision was first reported by The Washington Post.

“This decision allows the academy to continue its focus on its core mission of preparing cadets to lead, fight, and win as officers in the world’s most lethal force, the United States Army,” Mr Bieger wrote in the e-mail.

Former recipients of the award include President Dwight Eisenhower, President Ronald Reagan, Neil Armstrong, General Colin Powell, Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and actor Gary Sinise.

The alumni group announced in June that Mr Hanks would receive the Thayer Award, citing a career that supported veterans, the military and America’s space programme.

The group highlighted the actor’s roles in films such as Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, as well as his work on Band Of Brothers, The Pacific, Masters Of The Air and Greyhound.

In addition to his work in Hollywood, Mr Hanks became a spokesman for the World War II Memorial in Washington. He also helped to raise money for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, and served as national chair of the D-Day Museum Capital Campaign.

In 2023, he founded Hanks for Our Troops, a coffee company that supports military personnel through its profits and initiatives, according to the alumni association.

“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 programme and all branches of government than many other Americans,” Mr Robert McDonald, who is a former secretary of Veterans Affairs and the board chair of the alumni group, said in a news release in June.

In a statement, Mr Hanks said it was “simply astounding” that his “first ever visit” to the academy would be to accept the Thayer Award.

“To be recognised by an institution whose graduates have shaped our country’s history through selfless service is both humbling and meaningful,” Mr Hanks said.

The West Point Association of Graduates and Mr Bieger did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sept 7. Representatives for Mr Hanks did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr Hanks has been a critic of President Donald Trump in the past and came under criticism for the way he portrayed a Trump supporter in a sketch on an episode of Saturday Night Live that celebrated the show’s 50th anniversary.

The cancellation comes as military academies have been

caught in the crosshairs of the Trump administration.

In July, the Army secretary, Mr Daniel Driscoll, ordered West Point to rescind an employment offer it made to a cyber-security expert and Army veteran who worked in the Biden administration.

Military academies have also removed books related to the themes of diversity, equity and inclusion from their libraries as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity programmes.

Dr Graham Parsons, a tenured professor at West Point, resigned from the academy in 2025 after 13 years there. In a guest essay in The New York Times in May, he accused West Point of allowing the Trump administration to dictate what it taught cadets. NYTIMES