DERRY — Forty years after he retired, Samuel S. Gray is still a Marine.

When the Vietnam veteran found out in October he had stage 4 lung cancer, he decided he wanted to go out like a Marine, adorned in a full dress blue uniform. And thanks to Marine Staff Sgt. Christian Boles, a Londonderry native stationed in North Carolina, Gray will get his wish.


“We Marines always like to plan for the future. I knew I wanted to be buried in a dress blue uniform,” said Gray, who lives in Derry. “I have plenty of suits and that kind of thing. But I wanted to use the highest card in my deck. I figured I couldn't go wrong with that uniform.”

He didn't have any dress blues, though, and “you can't buy one of these in Sears,” said Gray, whose service from 1967 to 1971 included a tour in the Vietnam War.

He contacted Boles, the son of an old friend, and asked him to obtain a uniform for him to be buried in.

“I told him right from the get-go that I wanted to pay for it,” Gray said.

But Boles went much further after replying in an email that he considered procuring the uniform “an action item.”

First, Boles refused any payment for the uniform. He also brought a box full of Marine Corps items, including a pillow and afghan — “everything but underwear,” Gray said. Boles flew to New Hampshire to deliver the uniform personally, rather than ship it. He then refused to be compensated for his airfare.

“I was just overcome. I just couldn't believe it,” Gray said.

Gray hesitated to be interviewed when called by the New Hampshire Union Leader, saying he didn't want attention or sympathy.

He said he was willing to share the story only because he wanted to highlight Boles' good deed.

He'd written a letter to the editor of the Daily News of Jacksonville, N.C., which is where Boles is stationed, because he wanted people there to know what Boles had done.

“He just went above and beyond,” Gray said.

Boles, who served two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, said he'd have expected to do nothing less.

“I felt it was my obligation to just take care of it and do it,” said Boles, a 1991 Londonderry High School graduate and the son of Curtis and Linda Boles of Londonderry. “It was just the right thing to do.”

Boles flew home during the Thanksgiving holiday and his father arranged for Gray to come to the Boles household to be surprised. The uniform is tailored to Gray's size and is complete with new dress shoes.

“Yes, I could have put it in a box and just mailed it,” Boles said. “But mailing dress blues that he will be wearing when his time comes was not the right thing to do.”

Boles is also arranging things so Gray can be buried with a complement of Marines serving as pallbearers.

“To put it bluntly, I wanted Marines to carry my ass out of here,” Gray said.

But that time may have to wait, Gray said. Just before Christmas, Gray got some good news — chemotherapy was keeping the cancer from spreading.

When he told his wife and three grown children of his diagnosis in October, he said then that he would fight the disease.

“And I've been doing it since then,” he said.

But he said he also is realistic, hence the planning for his dress blues.

“We Marines like to be ready,” he said.

Since Boles refused any kind of payment, Gray sent a check to the Wounded Warrior project on Boles' behalf.

“Well, maybe he can say a good word and keep a spot for me when he goes to see Saint Peter,” Boles said.