WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Tara Palmer came to Purdue with hopes of playing Big Ten softball and going on to a career flying jets. After earning her aeronautical engineering degree in 2009 and a four-year career as a catcher, the Pearland, Texas, native has checked both off her to-do list.
Things came full circle for Lt. Palmer, an EA-18 pilot, last weekend when she returned to campus as a member of a Navy squadron, bringing three jets in for the Homecoming football game flyover Saturday. Palmer, a catcher from 2004 to 2008, spoke to two naval sciences classes Friday and gave the ROTC program and Boilermaker softball team a tour of her jet at the Purdue airport. The softball team, in turn, showed off its new stadium to Palmer, who had not been back to West Lafayette since graduating.
The weekend's events were special for Palmer because she landed her jet at the Purdue airport where she first learned to fly, she was returning to her alma mater and softball home, and also because she had coached current Purdue softball team member Lexi Huffman in under 14 summer ball.
As part of the festivities at the airport, the team gave Palmer some Purdue softball gear and she, in turn, gave the team a flag she had flown for them while deployed in Iraq and Syria in 2015.
Although the flyover was canceled Saturday morning due to low cloud cover, Palmer and her fellow pilots were still honored during the third quarter of the game, during which she wore a Purdue softball T-shirt under her flight suit. Along with Lt. Palmer, who was scheduled to be in the lead aircraft, two others in the Navy envoy are Purdue alumni - Cmdr. Michael Paul, who was in the second jet, and Capt. Norb Szarleta, who was watching from the ground.
It was truly a great weekend to be a Boilermaker, especially a Boilermaker softball player.