In Forrest Gump, the title character, played by Tom Hanks, receives the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Lyndon B Johnson.
In real life, it appears Hanks will no longer receive another military honor.
The alumni association of the US Military Academy, or West Point, announced in May that it would award Hanks, a two-time Oscar winner, with its 2025 Sylvanus Thayer award, which is given to an “outstanding citizen of the United States whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify personal devotion to the ideals expressed in West Point’s motto: ‘Duty, Honor, Country’”.
Now, the West Point Association of Graduates has canceled the ceremony to honor the actor just weeks before it was to take place, the Washington Post reported.
In an email to faculty, retired Col Mark Bieger stated that the decision would allow 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”.
In addition to his storied acting career, Hanks served as national spokesperson for the World War II Memorial in Washington DC and supported the late Republican senator Bob Dole’s fundraiser to create the Dwight D Eisenhower Memorial, according to the alumni association’s original announcement.
It’s not clear how honoring Hanks conflicts with “preparing cadets”, but the actor has donated to Democrats; received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama; and endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Since taking office a second time, Donald Trump has taken a litany of actions against his perceived enemies. For example, he has revoked the security clearances and details of some people in the Biden administration and of people who served in his first administration whom he deemed “bad” or “disloyal”; blocked some news organizations from the Pentagon workspace and White House press pool; and revoked security clearances of – and investigated – law firms that were “very, very dishonest”.
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