Some may remember that when the eruption of Mt St Helens was imminent, Harry Truman would not leave his lodge on Spirit Lake near the volcano. Harry and his lodge were buried beneath roughly 150 feet of the pyroclastic outflow.

The following provides a perspective on Harry's decision to stay. See link.

"A lot of people are missing the point about Harry and his desire to stay put in his lodge. I believe the issue is about age and his quality of life. IF he had been a much younger man, it certainly would have behooved him to make a hasty exit. However, at age 84, he had both the wisdom of a long life and the knowledge of his own self, to make the decision to flee or stay. The idea of leaving his comfort zone, his "Heaven on Earth", so to speak, would have devastated him. He had become the mountain and the mountain was him. When you kids get older, you will see that there is more to life than "longevity" alone."

My Dad passed away just over a year ago now. They took him by helicopter to the hospital in Sioux Falls, SD where the doctors confirmed he had pneumonia and put him on a ventilator to help him breath. He had major damage to his lungs and would have been in and out of the hospital for months to come with extended therapy. His wishes and living will stated that if he couldn't have quality of life he didn't want to be kept alive just for the sake of living. We could tell he was not happy with being on the ventilator and in the hospital.

The hospital palliative care team wanted to keep treating him for several more days to try and get him better but we knew that is not what he would want. We used a letter board so he could spell out words by pointing to letters and he very clearly spelled out "I don't want na to live anymore" and then "take tube out". We granted him his wish to die with dignity and as soon as we let him know we would honor his wishes he was again calm and at peace with that. He lived a great 86 years, taught and showed us many things, and is now in heaven with Mom and all of his other relatives and friends.

Dad was in the U.S. Navy from 8/1/45 to 7/27/46, serving first in the recruiting office at Camp Parks, California, and then in the transportation division at Mare Island, California. Hence my choice to enlist in the Navy when I graduated from college in 1970 and was draft motivated to join a military service.