WEST POINT, N.Y. (October 29, 2015) - The West Point Association of Graduates presented actor, director and musician Gary Sinise with the 57th Sylvanus Thayer Award Oct. 22. The award is presented to an outstanding American citizen whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exemplify personal devotion to the ideals expressed in the West Point motto, "Duty, Honor, Country."
Sinise serves veterans and active-duty service members through his Gary Sinise Foundation that provides resiliency and empowerment programs such as the R.I.S.E program (Restoring Independence and Supporting Empowerment) to adapt custom smart home building projects for severely-wounded veterans, and touring with the USO with the Lt. Dan Band named after Sinise's character Lt. Dan Taylor in the 1994 Academy Award-winning movie "Forrest Gump."
During the awards ceremony at Washington Hall, the U.S. Military Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr. introduced Sinise.
"Lt. Dan Taylor is a fictional character," Caslen said. "But we are privileged this evening to recognize the man who portrayed Dan Taylor in the movie and while he has played many roles throughout his career, his most notable role is the one he holds in real life, supporter and friend of those who serve and defend our great nation." The remark produced one of three standing ovations for Sinise.
"This has been a magnificent day," Sinise said. "Reviewing the Corps of Cadets on the Plain today will be a magnificent memory that I will cherish and to stand in this sacred hall, and to now be among such a distinguished list of recipients who have stood here in the past addressing you as I am now is simply overwhelming and I am grateful."
Sinise spoke about his brother-in-law, USMA Class of 1966 graduate Boyd McCanna "Mac" Harris, who served two tours in Vietnam where he received the Silver Star and returned to West Point as a tactical officer and later as an instructor. As a lieutenant colonel, he taught at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he rewrote the leadership manual, FM 22-100 for the Army.
"I met many great leaders that are currently serving in high command that served under Mac during those years and they all speak of him with great admiration, appreciation and respect," Sinise said. "I was inspired by him and learned much from him."
Sinise said he was in high school during the Vietnam years and didn't pay much attention, but he began to get an education during the late '70s and early '80s by talking to his brother-in-law and other local veterans.
"I began to receive an education from the Vietnam veteran side of our family, how bravely they fought, how they felt when they returned home and how they were treated," Sinise said. "Our country was divided over the war and had turned its back on the returning warriors. It was a shameful period in our nation's history, as many Vietnam veterans would disappear into the shadows. Listening to those veterans, I felt a strong sense of guilt at having been so unaware when I was younger. So, in the mid-'80s, I began supporting local Vietnam veteran groups in the Chicago area and over the years have tried to do my best to welcome them home as our country neglected to do at the end of Vietnam."
Sinise said he had a chance to portray a Vietnam veteran in "Forrest Gump," which is a part he desperately wanted to play.
"We must do better to tell the story of success after they have faithfully served our country and it should be the rule and not an exception," Sinise said. "I have met many, many real life Lt. Dan's that have inspired me by never giving up."
Sinise spent some time with members of the Cadet Spirit Band for a question and answer session in the Dean's conference room early in the afternoon before the award ceremony and one of the questions that was asked was about the Lt. Dan Band, which began touring in 2004 and does 50 performances a year with the USO.
Sinise said he had been on many USO tours for what he termed as hand-shaking tours and it was on one of those trips that Sinise thought of performing. "I wanted to go to Iraq to shake hands and on our first USO tour I went with Kid Rock and John Stamos," Sinise said. "We were taken to Kuwait then to Iraq on Northwest Airlines and it was 140 degrees."
Sinise said that there were thousands of Soldiers all around, and all of them expecting to see a show. "I watched Kid Rock and the other entertainers pick up instruments from the Soldiers and started playing, it was intense."
Sinise said he had been on many hand-shaking tours, but to him it didn't feel like a USO tour.
"So I started bugging the entertainers about letting me play," he said. "Eventually they agreed and they never asked to hear a CD or even asked if I could play. After I started doing it, the band just fell together. The band to me is always for the troops and they always call me Lt. Dan."
That first USO trip to Iraq also included a retired New York City fireman, John Vigiano, who lost his two sons on 9/11.
"He brought with him a piece of the World Trade Center and when he started talking, he passed the piece around," Sinise said. "I'll never forget the reverence and emotion on their faces when they held that piece of the World Trade Center. John introduced me to many members of the FDNY, who were there on that terrible day and who lost friends and have inspired me to help those wounded in battle in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Members of the FDNY attended the Thayer Award ceremony for Sinise and was invited to stand.
Quoting President Calvin Coolidge, Sinise said, "The nation that forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten."
"The Cadets here tonight were just 9 years old during the attacks," Sinise said. "Yet, it is so moving to me to learn of the tradition that began here that same year, the ring melt. For the Class of 2016, there is an additional and important and sobering ingredient. For the very first time, steel from the World Trade Center was included in the ring melt. It is a powerful reminder from this new generation of leaders that we must never forget."
Related Links:
U.S. Military Academy at West Point website
U.S. Army Garrison West Point website
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