Tad Comstock, 89 of Exeter, New Hampshire, will serve as the Parade Mace Bearer in Saturday’s Gaspee Days Parade. Comstock will carry the historical Rhode Island Mace down the parade route beginning at 10 a.m.

Comstock was one of the thousands of Americans who hit the beach on Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945. He was a member of the 5th Marine division. Approximately 6,800 Americans lost their lives on Iwo Jima. Comstock was one of the lucky ones. 

The Gaspee Days Committee selected Comstock to recognize his bravery and thank him for his service. On this Father’s Day weekend, Comstock is the proud father of Janet Russell, a 35-year volunteer on the Gaspee Days Committee. 

The Rhode Island Mace has been at the head of the parade every year since the first observance of Gaspee Days in June 1966. The Mace has been used in inaugural ceremonies since Governor Charles D. Kimball was sworn in on January 7, 1902.

The mace, made of historic fragments of wood, is closely associated with the historical backgrounds of the state and the nation. The eagle on the top of the mace was carried through the Civil War, on top of a staff that bore a Union battle flag. Part of the wood was once taken from the much-hated British revenue schooner H.M.S. Gaspee, which was burned after being caught on a sand bar off Gaspee Point on the evening of June 9, 1772. Another portion of the wood came from colonial Governor Arthur Fenner’s homestead in Cranston, which was built in 1680 and demolished in 1895.