Celidon Pitt

Lieutenant Colonel Celidon Pitt is a Marine judge advocate currently serving as the Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for Marine Forces Command, Marine Forces Northern Command, and Fleet Marine Force Atlantic.

Celi began his career as a CH-46E pilot with the Red Dragons of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 268, at Camp Pendleton, CA, from 2009 to 2013. He earned various flight qualifications and led missions across the full spectrum of assault support operations while deploying throughout the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Selected to transition to the judge advocate career field via the Excess Leave Program, Celi remained on active duty while attending law school from 2013 to 2016. He then spent two years as a defense counsel at Quantico, VA, representing Marines in criminal and administrative proceedings. From 2018 to 2020, he was the Regional Victims' Legal Counsel for the National Capital Region, where he led a team of attorneys in providing representation within the military justice system to victims of sex offenses and domestic violence. He then served as a prosecutor at Camp Pendleton for two years, first as Complex Litigation Counsel for the Western Region and then as Senior Trial Counsel for the installation. Celi finished his second tour at Camp Pendleton as the Officer in Charge of the Law Center before assuming his current billet in January 2024.

Celi holds a BS in English from the U.S. Naval Academy, a JD from Fordham Law School, and an LLM in Military Law from the Army Judge Advocate General’s School. He is also a former Next Generation National Security Leader at the Center for a New American Security, in Washington, D.C.

A native of Haverstraw, NY, Celi and his wife now live in Norfolk, VA. Together they chair The Wingman Foundation’s annual memorial walk in honor of fallen Navy and Marine aircrew.