well well well, sounds like you and I have something in common - I just got finished getting a degree from U of DE. I was also in the NAV for over 7 years. I learned a few tricks. Because you are over 26, you don't have to worry about your parents income level hindering the amount of aid the school will give you. When you fill out your FAFSA (i hope you know what this is), this will help you get more aid. Go to your financial aid office the minute you enroll. Start hanging out there a little. Get to know them. Ask all the staff questions. Act poor, but don't whine too much, throw in a blurb about money being tight every now and again. Fill out everything there. Let them know you have a kid, talk about your kid, they will feel very sorry for you, and this is good.
Consider NOT getting a part time job unless it is under the table. The money you make will count against your Federal and State aid and you might be thinking your are making 7 bucks an hour but with the way your tax-free state/fed aid checks are decreasing (if you have pt job), you may really be making 3. Sounds like the Navy all over again huh! ha ha. Anyway, the story goes on.
Your first semester of the YEAR AFTER you started going to school the aid people will look at your salary from last year and use it as your base for the current year. Appeal this. I did and got a good chunk of change back. The board will meet and talk about your situation. You may need to have someone in your corner on the board. Find out who these people are, it should be fairly easy. I got to know one of the staffers at U of DE financial aid enter and she told me who to talk to. He was in the NAV! These people love ex-military, and they should. Alot of them are themselves. Anyway, this guy was my hook-up, he was on the board, he got me extra $$$ on the appeal.
Other secrets:
The bigwigs like the guy above can give you an extra 5k per year in loans if you really need the change, but you have to ask the right people, only the big guys can change that number on the compu screen.
Scholarships don't nesc. have to be applied for to be gotten. I applied for general help at the financial aid office (filled out a small form). They gave me 1 thousand per semester scholorship my final year. I had a 3.7 gpa, so they knew I wasn't messing around. And they knew my face, I was always nice and polite to them. I think that was the key, getting my ugly mug around the peeps.
If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. I don't know much about the internships and whatnot, but I bet if you don't mind limiting your options somewhat, you could probably find one. They always want you to do a certain thing though, I wanted to do my own thing. I guess my big thing was, I just wanted to go to school and concentrate on my studies. I went to school year round (summer and winter semester). A job wouldn't have been much fun, and as it turns out, not getting one was the right thing for me.