Arbor Day event honors Army medic killed in Iraq

 

Published April 29, 2006
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer

Bryan W. Large's daughters want everyone to remember their dad.

``He was a great father and a very good soldier,'' said 11-year-old Kylie Large.

``He loved doing what he did and he loved his daughters,'' said 15-year-old Devan Bandy.

The two girls, along with the rest of their family and dozens of others, watched as the City of Cuyahoga Falls honored the 31-year-old U.S. Army sergeant, who was killed in action on Oct. 3, 2005, in Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq.

A Fort McNair horse chestnut tree was planted in his memory on Broad Boulevard near the city's new Five Flags of the Military display.

``It's kind of sad, but at the same time, it's good,'' Devan said of the Arbor Day event.

Sgt. Large, a 1992 graduate of Cuyahoga Falls High School, was a field medic who was killed with two others while on his second tour in Iraq. He was a paratrooper with the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division.

Large joined the Army Reserve in 2000 and later went into the regular Army.

In 2003, he served in Afghanistan, and he had just completed a six-month tour in Iraq in 2005 when he was reassigned there.

Cuyahoga Falls Service Director Valerie Wax Carr said the city worked with Large's family to pick a tree. The Fort McNair horse chestnut was chosen because of its red blossoms.

Falls Mayor Don Robart said Large was ``truly a hometown hero.''

``We know God is holding him in his hands,'' Robart said.

The soldier's mother, Linda Large of Cuyahoga Falls, described her son as ``strong, tall, proud and brave.''

And his father, Larry Large of Stow, thanked the city for honoring his son. ``Bryan was a wonderful father, a wonderful son and a true patriot for our country,'' he said.

Larry Large said that as the years pass and the tree grows, it will be noticed even more.

``It's all in Bryan's honor,'' he said. ``Bryan was bigger than life.''

He said his son, as a single father of two daughters, believed it was important to love your children ``the best you can.''

And he urged all those at the ceremony to remember those words about loving one's children, ``because they may not be here tomorrow.''