VA Loan Updates

TAMPA - Marine sergeant Tony Biermann will never forget the sound of the sirens that warned of a mortar attack, near the Abu Ghraib prison where he was serving.

“I didn’t have any time to run or do anything. It exploded behind me. I had shrapnel to my tailbone and to my upper elbow,” Biermann said.

A week later, he was honored with the Purple Heart.

But that medal didn’t carry the weight he thought it would when in January, he went to the Brandon campus of Hillsborough Community College.

Biermann told them about a bill, signed by then-Governor Jeb Bush last summer.

It waives undergraduate tuition at any state college or university for anyone with a purple heart.

Tony says he went to the admissions office and met with the veteran’s affairs representative on campus. He says no one knew anything about the law or how to give him the waiver.

“They basically said, time out, we need to verify this. As the weeks went by, [they said] ‘I got phone calls, I need to call certain people.’ And I’m stuck in the middle of a dead end,” Biermann said.

He says they put it in his hands, and he never heard back for more than a month.

So, we called HCC.

And by late this afternoon, they got back to us, telling us they cleared it up.

Biermann would be getting his tuition waived.

But they admitted, not everyone on their campuses was aware of the new law.

Biermann happened to be the first one at HCC who asked for it.

“I just wish by doing this, or whatever we can do to get this started, will help everyone else out in the future. That there is a set timeline of how this process works,” Biermann said.

He says he just wanted the benefits that he earned.

Military personnel can also sign up for the G.I. Bill, to help pay for college.

Biermann has done that as well, to pay for his books.

But he says the G.I. Bill has much more paperwork involved.

And it will take much longer to find out if he is accepted for that financial assistance.

Found here.

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