Fans of the movie “Saving Private Ryan” will recollect the scene where General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army chief of staff, orders a search-and-rescue mission for a paratrooper in Normandy whose three brothers were killed that week in combat.
George Marshall is no longer a household name in the country to which he gave a lifetime of service. He has so little a place in our memory that the Marshall Foundation, which since the 1960s has maintained a museum and research center at the Virginia Military Institute, Marshall’s alma mater, announced in 2021 the closure of that museum. The long decline in the number of visitors finally brought about its demise.
