Here is a very neat article from the Columbus Dispatch about the game last week. It is about the pilots who did the fly over before the game. Josh's Best friend from law school, Melissa and her husband are in the article. We are blessed to call the Palmisciano's friends. They moved to Beaufort, SC after law school and we have only seen them once since then. Josh will be seeing Melissa this weekend because they will be at the Ohio State Vs USC game together.

Mike Harden commentary: Navy's support runs deep at OSU
Sunday, September 6, 2009 3:33 AM
By Mike Harden

By the time you read these words, the only sound in Ohio Stadium might be the rustle of brooms, as sweepers push hot-dog wrappers and soft-drink cups along the seat rows at the Horseshoe.

The roar of the throng will be gone, as will the thunder of the F/A-18D Hornet fighter jets that thrilled the crowd with a flyover.

For two of the Marine pilots in the aerial formation, the trip to central Ohio was a homecoming of sorts. However, the two family reunions were demonstrations of antagonistic allegiances when it comes to football.
In Pickerington, when Lynn Schindel welcomed home her son, Marine pilot Capt. John Schindel, she also welcomed home her favorite Wolverine buddy.

"I'm originally from Michigan," Schindel's mother said Thursday, "so we brainwashed John to be a Michigan fan. I told myself I would never go to an Ohio State game."

She was the woman in the stands yesterday who applauded the flyover, then sat on her hands throughout the entire four quarters.

Before the game, her son had less to say about the team up north than the one he rooted for as a midshipman.

"I think Navy's got an offensive style that Ohio State has not played against," he said, stopping short of predicting a win for the academy.

Marine Maj. Melissa Dunlap Palmisciano, another Pickerington grad and the wife of flyover pilot Maj. Matt Palmisciano, was a little bolder in expressing her hopes for the game.

"I love Ohio State," she said, "but to see an underdog like Navy beat a football powerhouse would be amazing.

"It would also crush me," said Palmisciano, who graduated from the Naval Academy but earned her law degree at OSU. Her team loyalty is further conflicted by the fact that her father's boss is OSU head coach Jim Tressel.

"I don't want to get him fired," she said of dad Tom Dunlap, Tressel's program assistant for recruiting and operations.

"I guess she won't be hurt any way it turns out," Dunlap said Friday. As for his own team loyalties, he explained, "I am an OSU grad, and that's where my allegiance lies, even though I have a Naval Academy bumper sticker. I haven't missed an Army-Navy game since 1994. They are the true student-athletes."

It is likely that the most conflicted man among the scores of thousands who watched yesterday's game was Navy Cmdr. Dennis Crews, an OSU NROTC graduate in the Class of 1990.

Crews is finishing his command tour at the naval base at Corpus Christi, Texas. He ended up in the Horseshoe yesterday after his subordinates "kidnapped" him and planted him in the stands so he could alternate his rooting for the two teams.

"It's a squadron tradition to kidnap the outgoing commanding officer and take them out for a weekend," explained OSU naval science professor Tom Lennon, a retired Navy captain.

As though to further prove the ambivalence of those of military bent with OSU ties, Lennon said, "Here is my allegiance: Go Bucks. Beat Navy. Go Navy. Beat Army."

The flyover! Brad H. is leading with Matt in the jet on the starboard (right) side of the formation (on the left as you look at the picture). Capt M. is flying the 3rd jet (he played football for Navy).