Gretchen Benteen

Lieutenant Gretchen Maria Benteen was a Federation Starfleet officer on active duty in the 24th century. (Star Trek: Avenger: "Nearly a Valediction")

Early life

She was born to Waldemar Benteen, a Starfleet officer, and Dr. Maria (née Jaeger) Benteen, a professor in diplomatic psychology at the University of Makropyrios, in October 2279. While born on Earth, in Thionville/Deidenhofer, Europe, Gretchen was raised in cislunar space -- some years at L-5 Colony Two, some at New Berlin on Luna.

Gretchen's father Waldemar was chief navigator on USS Iblis when it was destroyed during a classified mission in 2289. (Star Trek: Shadowstar Station: Operation Blackjack) Gretchen was then ten years old, and her youngest sibling, Jacob, was barely a year old.

Dr. Benteen took a two-year sabbatical to care for her children alone, and to mourn the death of her husband.

Starfleet

In June, 2297 -- at the age of 17 -- Gretchen Benteen graduated from the New Berlin Gymnasium and entered Starfleet Academy, where she graduated 5th out of 800 in 2301. Her initial posting was to USS Accord as a navigation specialist with the rank of ensign. Accord's mission profile kept it largely within the Triangle during a period of Federation expansion into those sectors.

In 2306, Benteen was promoted to lieutenant junior grade and transferred to USS Arcturus, commanded by Captain Artemis Ne'vah, where she served for three years.

Benteen was promoted to full lieutenant while on Arcturus in 2308. An unrevealed incident prompted her to request transfer off the ship the following year. In 2309, she was transferred to USS Avenger, commanded by Judith Waidlich, as beta-shift navigations officer.

During the ship's resupply and reprovisioning in 2310, Avenger was in orbital drydock at Earth. Benteen took the opportunity to explore her home world, though she hadn't spent much time there as a child. ("Nearly a Valediction")

Senior officers of the starships Accord
	CO	XO	SO	SCI	ENG	HELM/NAV	COMM	CMO
NCC-1842:	Ibañez Anbinder J.C. Cohen Devine	N. Barstow Ramjattansingh Shappe Kinne J.C. Cohen Rose Beshures	Sturdevant Mitchell Kindermann	Ramjattansingh Gray | Kinne Devine	Sigurdsdottir Shappe Valentine	Kindermann Corwin | Avram ben Eliezer | Janek | Farkas | G. Benteen	Clark Beshures	Mangubat Ayelet ben Eliezer
Marshall-class | Sadat-class | NCC-0542 | NCC-1842 | NCC-63781 | NCV-2561842