Tom Hanks is set to receive the honour of the Sylvanus Thayer Award at West Point’s US Military Academy by its association of graduates on September 25.
However, the award ceremony is now cancelled, where the Forrest Gump star was announced to be recognised as an “outstanding citizen” who, despite not attending the military academy, still illustrates its ideals, which are “Duty, Honor, Country.”
An email by retired Army Col. Mark Bieger to alumni, “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.”
The Washington Post first reported this. As far as the award is concerned, the email, however, did not share another date for the meeting, nor did it say the award had been revoked.
The announcement comes on the heels of several decisions made by the Donald Trump administration regarding the military institution.
Moreover, Tom is a critic of the current president, as was explicit in his criticism in the statement to CNN last year.
“I think there’s always reason to be worried about the short term,” he said when he was asked about Trump’s re-election’s impact on freedom and democracy.
“But I look at the longer term of what happened I think there’s an ongoing — look, our Constitution says, ‘We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union.”
“That journey to a more perfect union has missteps in it,” the actor concluded, who has been a supporter of ex-president Joe Biden.
