U.S. Marines Just Activated Their First New Base in Nearly 70 Years

The U.S. Marine Corps officially opened a new USMC base, and their first new base since 1952. The base, called Camp Blaz, is located on the island of Guam. Over the next five years, approximately 5,000 Marines from III Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa will shift from Japan to Guam, though only 1,300 Marines will be permanently stationed there, with the other 3,700 Marines part of a rotational force.

Camp Blaz is named after Brig. Gen. Vicente “Ben” Tomas Garrido Blaz, a Guam native who served in the Marine Corps for twenty-nine years, and for four terms as Guam’s single delegate to the House of Representatives