I was working for the USGS at the time. A friend of mine was taking care of a tilt meter installed on the summit of the mountain. After it blew his boss asked him if he thought they might be able to find the equipment. His response to him was that it was most likely in low earth orbit. Another friend was due to go to Harry Trumans lodge to change paper on a smoke drum recorder but he over slept and had not left yet. He smiled at me as he told the story and told me that sometimes it pays to be slow.
The USGS planted a tree in David Johnstons honor at the Menlo Park campus. Years later they built a new building where the tree was so instead put a memorial rock in his memory. I knew of him but did not know him personally. He was a young PHD scientist and I was a young physicl science technician.
A couple of years after the event we installed 2 seismic recorders with borehole accelermoters placed 100 feet in the ground. One was at the Cold Water site and the other was at Spirit Lake. There was still steam rising from the ground at the Spirit Lake site. As we were working we would be treated to occasional ash falling on us. It was kind of earie to be working and have ash falling thru the clouds onto us. We were in radio contact with Vancouver and they were monitoring the volcano and assured us that they would let us know in time to get out it the mountain started acting up.
The borehole instrument did not last very long as the heat 100 feet down in the debris flow cooked it. After we retieved it I removed the outside casing and you could tell which way it was leaning in the bottom of the hole as the wax from the waxed string used to tie the wire in was puddled in one corner of the casing.
