West Point alumni group cancels award ceremony for Tom Hanks

[SunSeeker]

32. Hanks will still get the award. They're just not giving him a dinner and parade to present him with it.

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.

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/06/nx-s1-5532646/west-point-military-academy-alumni-group-scraps-award-celebrations-honoring-tom-hanks-sylvanus-thayer

My guess is Trump ordered West Point to not use their grounds for the ceremony, so the alumni couldn't do the parade. Retired U.S. Army brigadier general and professor emeritus of history at West Point Ty Seidule suggested it was the administration that caused the cancelation of the festivities:

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."

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/06/nx-s1-5532646/west-point-military-academy-alumni-group-scraps-award-celebrations-honoring-tom-hanks-sylvanus-thayer