Frank Dillon graduated from Eudora High School in 2000, got a rocky start at KU, then joined the military and deployed overseas multiple times. He returned to KU and is graduating with a business degree. Frank's family, from left, is Joshua, 8, Miranda, 2, wife Maggy, and Samantha, 7.

The letter Frank Dillon got from KU after his first semester politely “encouraged” him to improve his GPA.

The letter KU sent after his second semester informed him that he — and his 0.26 GPA — would not be welcome back.

“The most common term would be flunking out,” Dillon said.

Dillon, successful in high school without much effort, started KU as an engineering student, found the classes difficult and rather than studying, just quit going. Instead, he took on more hours as a manager at McDonald’s and later as a mechanic at a car dealership.

“It was easy to not go to class, because class wasn’t earning money for me,” Dillon said.

Deciding seeing the world would be more exciting than being a mechanic in Lawrence, Dillon joined the Army, making his decision before 9/11 and starting basic training a couple of months after.

Over the next 10 years Dillon, an airborne division combat medic, deployed to Afghanistan twice and Iraq once. In between he lived in Italy, North Carolina, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.

Applying a common tenet of combat veterans and EMTs — you are encountering people at the worst times of their lives, it’s not your fault they’re there, and you serve them best by simply doing your job to the best of your ability — he said he was able to separate his emotions from his difficult work.

But then there were situations like these: After a brief break from deployment to celebrate his son’s first birthday, he didn’t see him again until he was almost 2. He did not meet his youngest daughter until she was several months old.

Dillon left the military in 2010. With help from the GI Bill, he aimed for a second chance at college and a new career.

But getting readmitted to KU wasn’t easy — remember that 0.26 GPA?

It took about two years, community college classes, some letter-writing and applying for academic expungement to meet the requirements.

In his first days back at KU, he felt like movie-character Billy Madison on the first day of school.

But now Dillon is back under one roof with his wife and three kids. He sees his degree as investing in his earning potential. And he’ll be the first in his family to graduate from college — with a 3.79 GPA.