The West Point Association of Graduates has announced former President George W. Bush will receive the 2017 Sylvanus Thayer Award.
The award will be presented during an Oct. 19 ceremony hosted by Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen, superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
"He is a leader of conviction and resolve who guided our country through the most trying of times following Sept. 11, 2001, and today his service continues in the work of the George W. Bush Institute," said retired Lt. Gen. Larry Jordan, chairman of the West Point Association of Graduates' board.
"I thank the West Point Association of Graduates for this high honor," Bush said in a statement. "As I said in my graduation address to the Bicentennial Class of 2002, 'West Point graduates leave here marked by the character of this Academy, carrying with them the highest ideals of our nation.'"
The Thayer Award recognizes a U.S. citizen who has not graduated from West Point but has shown outstanding character and accomplishments, compared to the qualities West Point strives for, Jordan said.
"I am honored to be recognized among those men and women who have dedicated their lives to the values of West Point: Duty, Honor, Country," Bush said.
Past recipients of the Thayer Award include former FBI director Robert Mueller and actor and veterans' advocate Gary Sinise.
