Commander Laura Bender, U.S. Navy
Laura Jane Bender is a former U.S. Navy Chaplain and ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church. She pastored churches in the New York metropolitan area for 13 years before joining the Navy in 1999. In addition to providing general pastoral care to Sailors, Marines and their families, she has worked with detainees and migrants in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and with the Marine Corps’ Wounded Warrior Regiment in Quantico, VA.
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, working in a mobile field hospital and with mortuary affairs, Laura was identified by the Marine Corps as the first female chaplain in combat. The first or “plank-owner chaplain” on USS New York, a ship built with World Trade Center steel, she served as liaison to 9/11 families, First Responders, the Mayor’s office and U.S. Naval Commissioning committee. In 2004, Laura received the Navy League’s Collins Award for Inspirational Leadership, the only chaplain to do so.
A twelfth generation New Yorker, she has never lost her accent. Married to Kenneth Anderson, a retired Naval Reservist and Michigan police officer, Laura lives in West Branch, MI, on the top of a hill with a God’s-eye view of the surrounding countryside.
Mighty Pen Project Story: “Eyesore”
