CAPTAIN MARK ANDREW SANDER

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY

Captain Mark Sander was born in Penrith, New South Wales on 14 March 1961. He attended St. Dominics College before joining the Royal Australian Naval College in January 1977. After completing his HSC, he undertook a Science degree majoring in mathematics. Captain Sander joined HMAS TOBRUK for EXAC training in 1982 an d volunteered for service in submarines in 1983, when he was posted to initial submarine training at HMS DOLPHIN in Gosport, England.

On return to Australia, Captain Sander joined HMAS OVENS for Part Three training. On achieving his ‘dolphins’ in December 1983, he remained in OVENS as the Torpedo Officer and then Navigating Officer. He also served in ONSLOW as the Navigating Officer before joining ORION in February 1986 as the Operations Officer. His next series of postings were as the Executive Officer of submarines ONSLOW, OTAMA and OVENS.

In 1991, Captain Sander successfully completed the Submarine Command Course and was posted in command of HMAS OVENS in May 1992. After 21 months as the Commanding Officer, he posted to Adelaide for Collins Conversion Training in preparation for command of the third submarine HMAS WALLER. Delays in the project allowed Captain Sander the opportunity to return to Sydney to command HMAS ONSLOW. After a further 17 months in command, he returned to Adelaide to once again take command of WALLER. The association with WALLER was short lived, as he was posted as the Tactical Exercise Officer for COMSUBPAC in Pearl Harbor in January 1997.

On return to Australia he took up a posting with Maritime Development in Jan 1998. In March 1998 he was posted back to sea as the CO of OTAMA, for its last operational patrol. In July 1999 he returned to Canberra, and Maritime Development, but after five months, was posted as the Deputy Director General — Undersea Warfare Systems Branch for the COLLINS submarine project.

Captain Sander is married to Felicity and has two children, Christina and Michael. His interests include motor racing, travel and soccer.