LTC James T. Armstrong Memorial Law School Veterans Scholarship
- Support scholarship awards to students in the College who have honorably served in the United States military, have demonstrated selfless service/valor in that capacity, with preference to students who have combat or foreign service. Recipient must have been honorably discharged from active duty service. - Each applicant shall submit a DD Form 214 or an equivalent certificate of release or discharge from active duty (Proof of Service). The Dean or the Dean's designee (Dean) will make the final determination based entirely on information from the applicant's Proof of Service. In determining the recipient, the Dean shall give higher preference to those candidates who have been awarded the most awards with a "V" or "Valor" designation, as indicated in the "Decorations, Medals, Badges, Citations, and Campaign Ribbons Awarded or Authorized" entry in the Proof of Service (as indicated in Block 13 of the applicant's DD Form 214 (Awards Block)).1 In addition to valor awards, the Dean shall consider awards or badges with "Combat" designation and Purple Heart medals (also identified in the Awards Block). If no candidates have Valor or Combat awards (or if multiple candidates have equivalent Valor or Combat awards), the Dean shall give preference to the applicant with the most Foreign Service (set forth in Block 12(f)). If there are no candidates after these considerations, or there are multiple leading candidates, the Dean shall give preference to the applicant with the amount of Net Active Service closest to ten (10) years. (Net Active Service is the sum of the applicant's Net Active Service This Period and Total Prior Active Service found in Blocks 12(c) and 12(d)). - Notwithstanding the previous paragraph, if an applicant has been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, that applicant will be the preferred candidate to receive the scholarship. If an applicant has received a Prisoner of War Medal, that applicant will be the preferred candidate to receive the scholarship, unless another applicant has received the Congressional Medal of Honor. - If there are no qualified applicants for a year, the spendable income will be reinvested into the Fund and no scholarship shall be awarded.
Two U.S. Army and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans, Daniel K. Armstrong (Class of 2010) and Matthew F. Hall (Class of 2011), met while attending Levin College of Law and were surprised to find that there were no endowed scholarships for veterans. Armstrong and Hall decided to carry the flag and create the first endowed scholarship available exclusively to military veterans and service members at Levin College of Law. Through a truly grassroots effort and the help of hundreds of contributors at varying levels of financial support and encouragement, the mission to create this long overdue scholarship was successful.
From the beginning, LTC James (Tom) T. Armstrong (Ret.), Daniel’s father was very excited by the idea of the Veterans Scholarship and began to raise money and awareness. Tom Armstrong was a Vietnam veteran who commanded an infantry platoon in the 173rd(A) Infantry Brigade while he was in Vietnam. He then went on to serve in the 3rd Special Forces Group (A) before he graduated flight school. Unfortunately, Tom fell ill and died before the scholarship was endowed. Daniel and Matthew felt it would be a fitting tribute to name the scholarship in Tom’s honor. While Tom never attended UF, he was a staunch Gator supporter and champion of veteran’s higher education program
Other Fredric G. Levin College of Law Giving Opportunities
