In the 1998 war film '' Saving Private Ryan '' , General George Marshall ( played by Harve Presnell ) reads the Bixby letter to his officers before giving the order to find and send home Private James Francis Ryan after Ryan 's three brothers died in battle . In a voiceover near the end of the film , Marshall quotes the Bixby letter in a letter to Mrs. Ryan . On September 11 , 2011 , former U.S. President George W. Bush read the Bixby letter during the memorial ceremony at the World Trade Center site on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Bixby letter