Veteran officer is MDMR’s interim patrol chief

Pittman has 23 years of service, seven as assistant chief of marine patrol

The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources announced May 31 that 23-year veteran Lt. Col. Rusty Pittman has been named interim chief of Marine Patrol, effective immediately.

Pittman, a native of Biloxi now living in Hancock County, has served since 2006 as assistant chief to Walter “Tiny” Chataginer, who retired May 31.

“I have full confidence in Lt. Col. Pittman in leading the Marine Patrol as the search for a new Chief of Enforcement for Marine Patrol begins,” DMR executive director Jamie Miller said in a press release announcing the appointment.

Pittman said Thursday (May 30) that he was applying for the position.

Pittman joined the agency in 1990 when it was part of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. That agency’s Bureau of Marine Resources became a separate state agency, the Department of Marine Resources in 1994, and the enforcement wing separated from MDWFP and moved to DMR until 1999. It later became Marine Patrol.

Prior to his appointment to assistant chief in 2006, Pittman served as the West District Supervisor beginning in 1999.