On this Veterans Day, Army PFC Devan Bandy will be doing what her stepfather did in Iraq: serving her country as a medic.But Bandy, a 20-year-old Crestwood High graduate, will have a different perspective than most.Her father, Army Sgt. Bryan W. Large, of Cuyahoga Falls, was killed in Iraq in combat Oct. 3, 2005. He was 31 years old.“I miss him so much,” said Bandy, who has not met anyone on her tour in Iraq this year who has lost a parent in the war.Even though Large was not her biological father, he was the only father she knew and she called him “Dad.”Her biological father, Bryon Bandy, died when she was 2 years old and her mother, Heather Bigelow, and Large got together when she was 3.Bandy said Large “took care of me my whole life and always treated me as his own.”In fact, Large spoke of legally adopting Bandy when he came home from Iraq. But when she was 14, she and her sister, Kylie Large, then 10 years old, learned he had been killed in action.“It was hard to lose him,” Bandy said.She said her plan was to get into the medical field — like Large and her mother, who is a nurse. But she said her grades weren’t that good, although she later scored high on the Army entrance test.Bandy joined the Army in February 2010, several months after graduation from high school. She has been in Iraq since earlier this year.“My very first mission here in Iraq, my first time going outside the wire, I was with an infantry platoon like he was,” Bandy said in a recent interview. “I was in the third truck behind the driver, exactly where he sat when he died.“It was like 115 degrees and I am in all my gear, sweating my butt off, looking at nothing but sand as far as the eye could see.”Bandy said she thought: “I could die now. I am in the middle of Iraq, a war zone, with nothing but a truck to protect me.”And then she thought of Bryan Large.“I felt him in that moment and I knew that that was where I was supposed to be,” she said.Still, there are moments, she said, “where I am completely overtaken with sadness” on her assignment in Iraq.Large, joined the Army Reserve in 2000 and went active duty after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Army changed him, Bandy said.“He felt he needed to serve his country,” she said. “He grew so much.“The military made him a man.”Large, a member of the 82nd Airborne, had served in Afghanistan and one previous tour in Iraq before he was killed.His father, Larry Large, a Navy veteran from Stow, said he is extremely proud of Bandy and the choice she has made to serve her country, like his son.“I know her dad would be [proud, too],” he said.Growing as a personBigelow, of Streetsboro, said the Army has changed her daughter.“She carries herself with so much pride,” she said. “You can tell a difference.”She said having her daughter in harm’s way in Iraq is hard, especially after Large’s death.“The reality of what happens when these soldiers are deployed has become very real to our family,” she said.Six years later, she says she still has strong feelings for Large.“I loved him very much,” Bigelow said. “He will always be in my heart.”Bandy said the Army has changed her, just like it changed Large.“I have grown a lot since I have been here,” she said. “I am 20 years old, but I am not 20 years old.”She is scheduled to get out of the Army in September 2013.“Things that were important to me in the states aren’t important now,” she said. “I realize the important things in life and what is important to me. I realize what I want from life in general. I want to help people. I want to be a nurse.”The Army has enabled her to do things that “normally, 20-year-olds can’t do. It is exciting sometimes. It is everything at once. It is a huge confidence builder.”Bandy is serving in Iraq as America’s presence there winds down with all troops scheduled to be out by the end of this year.She thinks of her dad often.“I am dreading coming back from this deployment, because I know he won’t be there when I get off the plane,” Bandy said. “It should be my proudest moment, but it won’t be. It will be a sad moment because he won’t be there to shake my hand.”Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or at jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.