Benj Dobbs, holding the rank of Captain, was a male human. He flew as a pilot of the TIE Defender within the Galactic Empire's Starfighter Corps. Following the death of Vult Skerris in 1 BBY, who previously commanded Defender Squadron One within the Imperial 7th Fleet, Dobbs took over as commander of the squadron of starfighters. During that year, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who oversaw the fleet, gave Dobbs the mission of capturing a dead gralloc creature while they were located in a transfer system found within the Kurost sector.
The pilot then delivered the animal's body to Thrawn's Star Destroyer, the Chimaera. He later provided an escort for a shuttle that transported two Grysk prisoners to the same Star Destroyer. Subsequently, when the Chiss Ascendancy heavy cruiser Steadfast engaged two warships belonging to the Grysk Hegemony, the captain and his squadron launched an attack on these two starships, which subsequently self-destructed.
Serving under Grand Admiral Thrawn in the Galactic Empire's Starfighter Corps, Captain Benj Dobbs was a human TIE pilot assigned to the 7th Fleet. Eli N. Vanto, who held the rank of Commander before departing the Empire and Thrawn's Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Chimaera to join the Chiss Ascendancy in 2 BBY, knew Dobbs. In 1 BBY, Dobbs took the place of Commander Vult Skerris as the commander of Thrawn's Defender Squadron One after Skerris died during an attack on the Outer Rim Territories planet Lothal. During that year, the Chimaera went to the Kurost transfer point in the Kurost sector to address the gralloc threat to starships there, and Thrawn tasked Dobbs and his TIE/d "Defender" Multi-Role Starfighter squadron with capturing one of the creatures for research. As the Chimaera's sensor officer provided coordinates, the captain went after a gralloc target, but he failed to capture it after attempting for two hours.
Thrawn then adjusted his approach, creating a bypass to connect Lieutenant Fentaugh's Defender's sixth laser cannon to attract the grallocs to the starfighter. After a group of grallocs chased the Imperial fighter, Dobbs moved in behind them and killed the third member of the group. He then maneuvered the creature's body between the angled wings of his Defender, bringing it to the Chimaera. Soon after, Thrawn captured two Grysks during a battle with a Grysk Hegemony warship, and an Imperial shuttle brought the prisoners to the Chimaera, with Dobbs providing a full escort. While escorting the shuttle to the Imperial Star Destroyer, a cloaked Grysk starship attacked the Defender escort. However, as Dobbs attempted to locate the vessel, the Grysks escaped into hyperspace. Under Thrawn's orders, the captain then jumped to hyperspace, deactivating the cloaking device of a nearby Grysk gravity well projector and revealing its location.
After Thrawn discovered a Grysk forward base made up of two warships joined by eight umbilical cylinders, the Chimaera traveled to the base's location. Upon arrival, Commodore Karyn Faro, Thrawn's first officer, remotely destroyed the cylinders, causing the ships to separate and creating an explosion. Dobbs reported that the explosion only caused minor damage to the ships' surfaces. Thrawn then planned to destroy a Grysk task force that was attacking Imperial space, using Dobbs's Defender squadron and Grand Admiral Balanhai Savit's Third Fleet.
As he prepared for the battle with the task force, Thrawn asked Dobbs if he trusted Vanto, who had become a lieutenant in the Ascendancy's Chiss Defense Force and was serving on Admiral Ar'alani's Chiss heavy cruiser Steadfast. Dobbs confirmed that he trusted Vanto. While Thrawn arrested Savit on charges of treason, the Steadfast engaged the Grysk force's two warships. As the Grysks penetrated the heavy cruiser's hull, Vanto called in twelve Defenders under Dobbs's command, which fired at the rear warship.
Dobbs suggested skipping Gamma attack, which involved attacking the rear warship, and moving to Delta attack, where the Defenders would charge from the rear warship to the lead warship. In response, Ar'alani had Vanto bring six of the Imperial fighters back to hyperspace and send the other six to converge on the lead warship. Meanwhile, the Steadfast's tractor beam pulled a gravity well projector into the lead Grysk warship's hangar, while the Defenders attacked the fighters leaving the hangar. The warship tried to destroy the fighters with its cannons, but the shots missed, and the Grysks destroyed their own vessels. After the battle, Ar'alani instructed Vanto to arrange accommodations and refreshments for the Defenders' pilots.
Being a male pilot, Dobbs was enthusiastic about participating in the battle against the Grysk task force, and he welcomed the opportunity to work with Vanto again.
Benj Dobbs was featured in the 2019 novel Thrawn: Treason, the last book in Timothy Zahn's Star Wars: Thrawn series. He was also depicted in the Skystrike Academy Squadron Pack for Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars: X-Wing Second Edition miniatures game, which was released on March 26, 2021.