Maj. James Christopher Pittman, Usaf

Maj. James Christopher “Chris” Pittman, USAF, 43, passed away on Sunday, June 17, 2018 at his home in Georgia from complications of Huntington’s Disease, the same cruel disease that killed his mother, his maternal grandfather, and many other members of the extended Parker family.

Chris was born on April 14, 1975 in Starkville, Mississippi to James Lee “Jimmy” or “Jim” Pittman and the late Sandra Lynn Parker Pittman. Most of the first ten years of his life were spent in Newport News, Virginia where he enjoyed playing soccer, baseball, basketball, and swimming. His family relocated to Greenwood, Mississippi in 1985, and Chris graduated from Greenwood High School where he played on the school soccer team and competed in Pony League baseball before graduating as part of the Class of 1993. He attended Ole Miss on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and earned his degree in 1997. It was at Ole Miss where he met his future wife, Holley. As a true Southern boy, Chris found pleasure in playing sports, hunting, fishing, shooting guns, driving fast cars, sailing boats, and riding jet skis. Tae Kwon Do was another of Chris’s passions.

The United States Air Force was Chris’s life. His enthusiasm for the Air Force, for his job as a navigator on the AWACS and JSTARS aircraft (Boeing 707 jets with large radars), for his buddies, and for his duty stations in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Germany, Georgia, and Virginia was contagious. He never tired of telling stories about his honorable military career. Chris believed in his country and willingly risked his life for America in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya during his twenty year military career including 1,608 combat hours. In 2011, Chris was awarded the Air Force Association Air Battle Manager Crew of the Year for his service in Operation Unified Protector. Chris’s family is grateful to his commanders and the chain of command for their unwavering support of Chris during the last year or so of his career while his capabilities declined due to Huntington’s Disease. In addition to his mother, Chris was preceded in death by his grandmothers, Mary Sue Parker and Doris Pittman Thompson and his grandfathers, Rex Parker and Leonard “Buddy” Pittman.

Chris’s memory will forever be treasured by his adoring wife of 19 years, Holley Rose Gandy Pittman; their daughter, Addison Rose, age 9; their son, Austin Christopher, age 8; his father, James Pittman (Colleen) of Suffolk, Virginia; his sisters, Courtney Lynn Pittman of Greenwood, Mississippi and Avery Melissa Pittman of Arlington, Virginia; his brother, Ryan Douglas Hammond (Kate) of Reston, Virginia; and many other extended family members and friends.

Visitation with Maj. Pittman’s family will be Sunday, June 24, 2018 from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at Memphis Funeral Home in Memphis, Tennessee. The graveside service celebrating his life will be held at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, June 25, 2018, at West Tennessee State Veterans’ Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee with full military honors.

In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests that contributions be made to the Huntington’s Disease Foundation, P.O. Box 912, Salado, Texas 76571 (www.huntingtonsdiseasefoundation.org) or the Air Force Aid Society at www.afas.org.

What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten…[you] know love can endure. May you rest in peace, Chris.

McCullough Funeral Home and Crematory has the privilege of being entrusted with Maj. Pittman’s arrangements.