"It's premature to be too critical given that you have 150, 000 new applicants, " said John Gephardt, who works with veterans at the University of Florida and Santa Fe College, a community college in Gainesville, Florida.

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Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Fla.

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Hill, an affable environmental scientist with a slight drawl and a ruddy complexion, met Rogers in 1992, while selling boiled peanuts at the side of the road outside Gainesville to pay for his education at a local community college.

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