[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 22 (Wednesday, February 5, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E168-E169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING GENERAL BLAZ

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 5, 2014

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and remember former 
U.S. Representative and Brigadier General Vicente T. ``Ben'' Blaz, who 
passed away on January 8, 2014 in Fairfax, Virginia at the age of 85.
  Gen. Blaz was born on February 14, 1928, in Hagatna, the capital of 
Guam. At 13, he was forced into a Japanese detention camp following the 
Japanese seizure of the island immediately after the attack on Pearl 
Harbor in December 1941. While a detainee, Gen. Blaz witnessed the 
torture and murder of his fellow Chammorros--natives of Guam--until 
American Marines liberated the island in 1944.
  Following the war, Blaz learned English and received a scholarship to 
study at the University of Notre Dame. Soon after graduation, he joined 
the Marine Corps, where he served in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars, 
earning the Bronze Star. He then served in the Joint Staff for a number 
of years, including under General Lemeul Shephard, who liberated his 
home from the Japanese many years earlier.
  Blaz was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in 1977. He was 
the first non-white soldier to attain this rank within the Marine 
Corps.
  Gen. Blaz served three more years before retiring from the military 
and returning home to Guam. There he worked as a teacher and farmer 
until his election to the U.S. Congress in 1982. For eight years, he 
served as Guam's non-voting representative in the House, and held 
committee assignments on the Foreign Affairs Committee and Armed Forces 
Committee. During his time in Congress, he focused on veterans' 
education issues, as well as the reorganization of Guam's judicial 
system.

[[Page E169]]

  Following his retirement in 1992, Gen. Blaz published a memoir, as 
well as books and television documentaries about Guam's history and 
culture. He also spent time in Virginia's 10th District in Fairfax 
County, where he passed away last month. He is survived by his two 
sons, Tom and Mike Blaz, as well as two brothers, one sister and five 
grandchildren.
  I submit the following obituary from the Washington Post on Gen. 
Blaz's amazing story.

               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 27, 2014]

  Vicente T. `Ben' Blaz, Marine General and Guam Delegate, Dies at 85

                           (By Matt Schudel),

       Vicente T. ``Ben'' Blaz, who survived a Japanese prison 
     camp during World War II and later became a Marine Corps 
     brigadier general and Guam's representative in Congress, died 
     Jan. 8 at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax County. He was 
     85.
       The cause was acute respiratory failure, his son Tom Blaz 
     said.
       Gen. Blaz was 13 when he was captured by Japanese forces 
     who overran the U.S. territory of Guam on Dec. 8, 1941, one 
     day after the Japanese attack on the American naval base at 
     Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was one of many native Chamorros, as 
     natives of Guam are often called, held in a detention camp 
     and pressed into forced labor, building airfields for the 
     Japanese.
       He was later held in a Japanese prison camp, where he saw 
     fellow inmates beheaded.
       ``As a boy, I stood behind barbed wire,'' he told The 
     Washington Post in 1977. ``There was a pervasive sense of 
     personal insecurity. That probably is more damaging to your 
     feeling of wellbeing than hunger.''
       In 1944, he was freed when U.S. Marines reclaimed Guam from 
     the Japanese. He asked a young Marine how he could go to the 
     United States.
       ``The first thing you have to do is learn to speak 
     English,'' he recalled the Marine saying. Gen. Blaz spoke 
     primarily the local Chamorro language at the time. ``He 
     taught me a few words and told me, of all things, to listen 
     to the radio, and talk as they do.''
       After graduating in 1951 from the University of Notre Dame, 
     in Indiana, Gen. Blaz joined the Marine Corps. He served 
     during the Korean War and was an artillery officer in the 
     Vietnam War, where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
       He held several jobs with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and 
     once served under Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., a Marine general 
     who led the U.S. forces that recaptured Guam in 1944.
       When he was promoted to brigadier general in 1977, Gen. 
     Blaz became the first person from Guam and the first non-
     white Marine to reach the rank of general. At the time, he 
     was director of information for the Marine Corps, in charge 
     of rebuilding the image of the Marines after the Vietnam War.
       After retiring from the military in 1980, Gen. Blaz 
     returned to Guam to farm and to teach. He made an 
     unsuccessful bid as a Republican for Guam's non-voting 
     congressional seat in 1982.
       Two years later he won a closely contested election, 
     defeating Antonio B. Won Pat, who had served as Guam's 
     delegate since 1973, when the territory first received 
     representation in Congress.
       Gen. Blaz, who was a member of the Armed Forces and Foreign 
     Affairs committees, was the only retired general serving in 
     Congress at the time. He had few legislative victories in his 
     limited role in Congress, but he was instrumental in 
     reorganizing the judicial system on Guam and was a strong 
     advocate for improved educational benefits for veterans.
       Gen. Blaz served four terms before losing a reelection bid 
     in 1992 to Robert A. Underwood.
       Vicente Tornas Blaz Garrido was born Feb. 14, 1928, in what 
     is now Hagatna, the capital of Guam, and grew up in a farming 
     community. Guam, which is about 30 miles long, has a 
     population of about 140,000 and is the southernmost island in 
     the Marianas chain. It became a U.S. territory after the 
     Spanish-American War in 1898.
       In 1947, Gen. Blaz received a scholarship to attend Notre 
     Dame. After a 22-day boat trip, he arrived in San Francisco 
     and told a cabdriver to take him to Notre Dame. He was 
     dropped off at a Catholic girls' school with a similar name, 
     where he presented his papers to the nuns. They put him on a 
     train to Indiana.
       While serving in the Marine Corps, he received a master's 
     degree in public administration from George Washington 
     University in 1963. He had a home in Fairfax County since 
     1969 and was a member of St. Mary of Sorrows Catholic Church 
     in Fairfax.
       His wife of 58 years, Ann Evers Blaz, died in May 2013. 
     Survivors include two sons, Tom Blaz of Fairfax and Mike Blaz 
     of Fairfax Station; two brothers; a sister; and five 
     grandchildren.
       After Congress, Gen. Blaz wrote a memoir and books about 
     Guam and also made a series of historical and cultural 
     television documentaries about his native island.
       In Congress and later in life, Gen. Blaz became known for a 
     rueful description of the people of Guam, U.S. citizens who 
     serve in disproportionate numbers in the military but do not 
     have full representation in Congress: ``Equal in war, unequal 
     in peace.''

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