COLLEGE PARK, Md. - If it seems like a nightmare now, it started with a dream come true.

Anna Viviano got into one of the best schools in the country, and as an ROTC recruit, she didn't have to pay a penny.

"I talked to a couple recruiters and they were just like you can go to Vanderbilt for free," she recalled.

And for two and a-half years, Viviano thrived -- second in her ROTC class and a near-perfect GPA.

"I thought everything was going swimmingly -- was right on track to do what I wanted," she said.

Then came the unexpected. During a doctor's visit for allergies, she was diagnosed with asthma. Two months after that, in December 2005, she got news from the Navy.

"And that's when they told me you're being kicked out because you have exercise induced asthma," she recalled.

Not only was she medically discharged, she had to pay back what the Navy had spent on tuition for her first two and a-half years: $75,000. It was to be paid in full within the month.

"And when that didn't happen, they asked for $20,000 on top of that," Viviano said.

Three years of appeals to the Navy -- and three letters of rejection later -- 24 year-old Anna Viviano now owes $100,000.

"And it just feels like I'm yelling out there and nobody's hearing," she said. "And I hired a lawyer, thinking he's got a bigger voice but he just got drowned out just like me."

Viviano is now a graduate student at the University of Maryland. She says she is considering suing the Navy and considering filing for bankruptcy.

A Navy official says the Navy is looking into the matter but decline to comment, saying each case is different and a response will take time.

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