Representative Ben Garrido Blaz

Vincente Tomás Garrido Blaz (February 14, 1928 – January 8, 2014), also known as Ben Garrido Blaz or Ben Blaz, was a Chamorro United States Marine Corps brigadier general and Republican delegate to the United States House of Representatives from the territory of Guam, serving four terms in Congress from 1985 to 1993. He was the highest-ranked Chamorro to have served in the Marine Corps as of February 2010 and later became a prominent political figure representing Guam at the federal level.

Blaz was born on February 14, 1928, in Guam, then a United States territory in the western Pacific. Growing up Chamorro under U.S. administration and through the upheavals of World War II, including the Japanese occupation and subsequent liberation of Guam in 1944, he developed a strong identification with both his island homeland and American institutions. The wartime experience of Guam, and the role of the U.S. Marine Corps in its liberation, would later figure prominently in his military career and public service.

After the war, Blaz pursued higher education in the continental United States. He attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where he completed his undergraduate studies before embarking on a military career. At the beginning of the Korean War, he joined the Marine Corps Reserve, and after graduating from Notre Dame he attended Officer Candidate School. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps and served in Japan during the Korean War era. Continuing his education while in uniform, he later attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he received a Master of Arts degree in 1963. In December 1974, the University of Guam conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, recognizing his professional achievements and service.

Blaz’s Marine Corps career spanned from 1951 until his retirement on July 1, 1980. Over nearly three decades, he held a wide range of command and staff assignments and attended multiple advanced service schools. His professional military education included the Navy’s School of Naval Justice for legal officers in Newport, Rhode Island; the Army’s Artillery and Guided Missile School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; the Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, Virginia; and the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, where he was designated a Distinguished Graduate. His Naval War College thesis, “The Cross of Micronesia,” examining strategic and political issues in the Pacific region, was published in the Naval War College Review and was entered verbatim into the Congressional Record in August 1971, reflecting its significance to U.S. policymakers.

In operational and strategic roles, Blaz rose steadily through the Marine Corps ranks. In 1972, he was assigned as commanding officer of the 9th Marine Regiment, one of the major units that had participated in the liberation of his native Guam during World War II, a posting that carried deep personal and historical resonance. From September 1972 to August 1975, he served as Chief of the United Nations and Maritime Matters Branch in the International Negotiations Division of the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C. In that capacity, he represented the Joint Chiefs of Staff on United States delegations to several international multilateral negotiations, including the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Helsinki and law-of-war negotiations in Geneva, and he served as an action officer on Law of the Sea matters. His final active-duty assignment was as Deputy Chief of Staff for Reserve Affairs at Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. Blaz retired from the Marine Corps with the rank of brigadier general in 1980.

Following his retirement from active duty, Blaz returned to Guam and entered academic and public life. He served as a professor at the University of Guam, contributing to the education of a new generation of island leaders and sharing his experience in military affairs, international relations, and public policy. His alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, honored him in 1988 when the Notre Dame Alumni Association presented him with the Corby Award, which recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves in military service. This recognition underscored the national profile he had achieved as both a senior Marine officer and a public servant.

Blaz transitioned to elective office in the 1980s. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected in 1984 as Guam’s delegate to the United States House of Representatives. He took office in January 1985 and served four consecutive terms, remaining in Congress until January 1993. As Guam’s non-voting delegate, he participated fully in the legislative process, serving on committees, introducing and cosponsoring legislation, and advocating for the interests of his constituents in areas such as territorial self-government, defense policy, veterans’ affairs, and economic development. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history marked by the final years of the Cold War, the end of the Reagan administration, and the presidencies of George H. W. Bush and the early Clinton era. Within this context, Blaz worked to ensure that Guam’s strategic importance and the needs of its residents, including many military personnel and veterans, were represented in national debates.

After leaving Congress in 1993, Blaz remained an influential figure in Guam and among Pacific Islander and Asian American communities in the United States. His career placed him among the notable Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans who have served in the United States Congress, and he remained a point of reference for discussions of territorial representation and Chamorro participation in national life. His legacy in the Marine Corps was further recognized when Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, a major military installation in Dededo, Guam, was named in his honor; the base was formally activated in October 2020, several years after his death, symbolizing the enduring impact of his service on both the Corps and his native island.

Ben Garrido Blaz died on January 8, 2014. His life and career, spanning combat-era military service, high-level strategic assignments, academic work, and four terms as Guam’s delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1985 to 1993, left a lasting imprint on the civic and political history of Guam and on the broader story of American military and congressional service by Pacific Islanders.