I was stationed at Ft Lewis WA when St Helens went up. Had just gotten out of my car and me and two pals were walking across the parking lot when BOoM! We hit the dirt and looked South to see the ash cloud rising up through the air. We had no idea it was a volcano and at first naturally thought....NUKE!! Wild few minutes there... We left the base two days later on the way to Oregon to have maneuvers on the beach and went right past there...looked bad, real bad. Ash choking up rivers, all sorts of cars and trucks abandoned because ash had stopped the motors. Trees down everywhere. What a mess. Even at Ft Lewis there was ash about 3" deep everywhere...
