Willits bypass on Highway 101 to be named in honor of late Navy SEAL

A 1-mile elevated section of the bypass under construction on Highway 101 in Mendocino County is to carry the name of a Willits serviceman who died four years ago in Afghanistan.

U.S. Navy SEAL Jesse Pittman, 27, of Willits was killed when the helicopter he was in was shot down by Taliban insurgents over the Wardack province Aug. 6, 2011. Thirty U.S. servicemen died in the attack.

A retired high school librarian who knew him, Mikela Cameron, and Pittman’s uncle, Mike Pittman, initiated the effort to immortalize his name on a bridge. The cause gained the support of Caltrans and county officials and Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, who authored the resolution that made the name change for the Willits bypass effective last week.

“Jesse Pittman made the ultimate sacrifice for our country,” Wood said. “Naming this bridge in his memory will remind us of his life and his service. We are forever grateful.”

The viaduct will be dedicated to Pittman once the project is completed sometime next year, said Caltrans spokesman Phil Frisbie. A community fundraising effort is planned to purchase two signs, one for each end of elevated roadway, said Pittman’s parents, Ida and Terry Pittman. The cost has not yet been determined.

“We are appreciative,” Ida Pittman said of the honor and the community support in the wake of her son’s death.

Pittman was born in Arcata and raised in Willits. He spent two seasons as a wildland firefighter with Cal Fire following his graduation from Willits High School in 2002. He enlisted in the Navy in 2005. Following two years of training, he reported to the elite, West Coast-based SEAL team.

At his 2011 funeral at the Ukiah fairgrounds, attended by more than 1,000 people, Pittman was described as a fun-loving prankster who also was a determined, dedicated warrior.

He was deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen before volunteering to return to Afghanistan in June 2011.

“He didn’t have to be there,” Navy Commander Michael McAbee, the commanding officer of Pittman’s SEAL team, noted in a letter in support of the bypass resolution.

“But he wanted to continue to serve in combat and take the fight to the enemy. That’s who he was, and that’s why he should be honored publicly and permanently through this highway project,” McAbee wrote.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MendoReporter.