Document Type
2001-2020 Navy
Date of Submission
July 2025
Keywords
Mighty Pen Project, Veteran, Memoir, Combat, Composite Novel, Anthology, short story, VFW, Archiving, Memory, Individual Stories, Photos, Pictures, Vietnam, Memorial, Slice of Life
Abstract
Two veterans from different eras keep memories alive through archival work.
"So many of the pictures were fading, curling, and cracking. Add a few years, and the history captured in light and shadow will be lost, like so many veterans and the stories they never told.
I commit mine to paper so they won’t be forgotten."
Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.
Author Biography
Laura Jane Bender is a retired US Navy Chaplain and ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church. She pastored churches in the NY metropolitan area for 13 years before joining the Navy in 1999. Besides providing general pastoral care to Sailors, Marines and their families, she’s 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, she worked in a mobile field hospital and with mortuary affairs and 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 WTC steel, she served as liaison to 9/11 families, First Responders, Mayor Bloomberg’s office and US Naval Commissioning committee. A master training specialist, Laura has worked at both the Naval Chaplains School and the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command. She has a Master of Theological Studies in Religion and Conflict Transformation from Boston University School of Theology, a Master of Divinity from Wesley Seminary, Washington, D.C., and a BA in Religion/Philosophy with a minor in German from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Her Iraq war photos are on permanent display at the Women in Military Service for America Museum, Arlington, VA. In 2004 she received the Navy League of the United States, Captain Winifred Quick Collins Award for Inspirational Leadership, the only chaplain to do so.
A twelfth generation New Yorker, she loves genealogy, and has never really lost her accent. Laura is married to Kenneth Anderson, a retired Naval Reservist and Redford, Michigan Police Officer. They live in West Branch, MI on the top of a hill with a God’s eye view of the surrounding countryside.
Is Part Of
Mighty Pen Project
