Dirk Pitt (Reimagined)

Dirk Eric Pitt is an American oceanographer and National Underwater and Marine Administration aquanaut, who is the current Chief of the Aquanaut Office at NUMA.

He was born and raised in Longview, Texas. His father, Georgia Pitt, was a Texas State Senator and former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot. His mother, Barbara Pitt, was a kindergarten teacher. After Pitt graduated from Longview High School, he went on to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He graduated from the Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in Oceanography and a commission as an Ensign in the United States Navy. While at the Naval Academy, Pitt decided to become a Navy SEAL officer.

After completing Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, he attended parachute training and then went on to SEAL Qualification Training. Following his completion of SEAL Qualification Training, Pitt attended SEAL Delivery Vehicle School. Afterwards, he was assigned to SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1 as an assistant platoon commander. Pitt was later elevated to the position of a SEAL Delivery Vehicle platoon commander. After serving a a tour as a BUD/S training instructor, he was reassigned to SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1 as the operations officer.

Pitt left the U.S. Navy after eight years of service and then enrolled in the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Soon after receiving his Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography, he found employment with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a research oceanographer at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. Two year later, Pitt joined the faculty of the Naval Postgraduate School as a research assistant professor in the Department of Oceanography.

A couple of months later, he applied to join the National Underwater and Marine Administration, an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for oceanographic research such deep-sea geological surveying and marine archaeology, as well as marine biology studies and oceanic climate research. NUMA is also responsible for U.S. government deep-sea mining. After Pitt completed the application process, he was selected by NUMA as an aquanaut candidate. He then went on to Aquanaut Candidate Training at the NUMA Headquarters Facility in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Upon completing the one-year training course, Pitt officially joined the NUMA Aquanaut Corps and was assigned technical duties in the Aquanaut Office. He later served as a mission crewmember on a deep-sea mining mission, a mission specialist on a deep-sea exploration mission, the deep-submergence vehicle pilot on a deep-sea exploration mission, and finally as the mission commander on two deep-sea exploration mission. Pitt also served as the mission control communications officer for three deep-sea exploration missions.

Six years into his career with the NUMA Aquanaut Corps, he was selected by James Sandecker, the Administrator of NUMA, to be the new Chief of the Aquanaut Office, which is the most senior leadership position for active aquanauts. In that capacity, Pitt serves as head of the NUMA Aquanaut Corps and is the principal advisor to the NUMA Administrator on aquanaut training and operations. He is also responsible for managing Aquanaut Office resources and logistics, and helps develop aquanaut mission crew operation concepts and crew assignments for future deep-sea exploration missions.