the side bar THE NEWSLETTER OF THE WESTMORELAND BAR ASSOCIATION VOLUME XXII, NUMBER 4 AUGUST 2010 Vietnam: Thirty-Five Years Later by The Hon. Daniel J. Ackerman over a broad area to all parts of the —and me in the legal office. We world. Like most in the military, the became good friends and aside from ould it possibly be that long majority did not see combat, but they their calling me “Squid” (Editor’s note: ago? When American living made the contribution asked of them Oh, if only we had known that while rooms nightly reverberated by their country. We asked for their he was on the bench), I very much C enjoyed my tour there. At that time with the rattle of machine guns and recollections and thoughts. small arms fire coming from television Some of our colleagues entered (early 1964), Vietnam was on the back sets, a few of them showing the military service as lawyers. JIM SILVIS burner. Most Americans did not know conflict in color, as we stared with and JUDGE JOSEPH HUDOCK joined where it was. We had a squadron of blank faces. Rice the Navy, completed the Navy Officer helicopters there, but Vietnam was not paddies, protesters, Candidate School and the Navy Justice that dangerous. Military personnel and body counts School at Newport, Rhode Island, and had their dependents living with them were brought before were commissioned as Lieutenants, in and around Saigon. us as regularly as Junior grade (the judge in 1963 and The situation changed dramatically weather reports, Jim in 1965). Judge Hudock was in mid-1964, after North Vietnamese and it seems like it commissioned on November 22, gunboats fired on one of our was only yesterday. 1963, the date of President Kennedy’s destroyers in international waters. In It was a war which assassination. the middle of the night, we were told began in November The future judge soon learned that to be ready to ship out for Vietnam. I L 1955, but it received the law of promissory estoppel did not was shocked to see the enlisted men The Hon. Daniel J. no attention then. apply to the Navy. He recalls: in our office packing up law books in Ackerman Awareness began in The Navy recruiter crates. This was my first realization the early ‘60s when, as part of the told us that we would that Marines took law books and Cold War, the United States signaled be asked to select lawyers to the front lines. I had its intention to prevent a communist three places we would assumed that lawyers stayed far takeover of South Vietnam as part of like to serve, and that away from danger. its wider strategy of containment. By we were virtually The whole thing blew over, and the time it ended with the fall of guaranteed to receive we remained at Iwakuni, but the L Saigon on April 30, 1975, the events one of those choices. I activity was markedly increased. The Hon. in Southeast Asia had transformed chose Newport, Boston, In March of 1965, my tour of duty Joseph A. our political landscape and caused and Washington, D.C. was over and I was transferred to Hudock the deaths of three to four million My orders came in for Mare Island, California. Several Vietnamese on both sides; one to two the First Marine Air Wing at Iwakuni, weeks later, the entire First Marine million Laotians and Cambodians; and Japan! Not only did I not get one of Air Wing was transferred to Vietnam, 58,159 Americans. my selections, I didn’t even get the and the war escalated rapidly. For some members of the Navy! I got the Marine Corps! In the years during the war, the Westmoreland Bar, the war was not a It turned out to be a great experi - term “Hanoi” conjured up images of televised event. It took them out of ence. There were six Marine lawyers violence, communism, assassinations, their living rooms and scattered them —all well educated and very competent continued on page 6 IN Spotlight AlterEgo: To-Wit: by Jury THIS President’s Committee on Jim Bob S. Sponte, Trial ISSUE 25Message 3 Reports Kelley 11 Bickers 13 Esq. 15 Verdicts 2 • sid ebar AUGUST 2010 President’s Message The Balancing Act by Donald J. Snyder, Jr., Esq. here once was a time when telephone hookup. Finally, we could have to go to the Courthouse to get the Pirates were competitive, avoid the frustration of “I’m sorry, we tax maps, copies of deeds, docket Tmy hair was dark brown, and called your office to tell you that the entries, and pleadings; all are available S. Sponte, Esq.’s identity was a well deponent has the flu,” after driving over the Internet for printing on our kept secret. Similarly, it used to be that into Pittsburgh through traffic for a color copiers. We have the ability to be the typical well equipped law office 9:00 a.m. deposition. It also included more efficient and deliver quality work featured an IBM the feature of “could you stop by Davis to our clients that was once reserved Selectric typewriter Market and get bread and milk,” and for the large law firms. with built-in erasing a thousand other similar interruptions The same technology advances ribbon, a dictation to the once serene sanctuary of the have brought 24/7 connectivity to our machine using automobile interior during a drive from work. We carry electronic devices that magnetic belts, a place to place. Everything has a price! are straight out of James Bond or the Xerox copier with The facsimile machine Jetsons. The walls of separation that a curved glass top, brought similar benefits/ once provided some solace crumbled Bell of Pennsylvania burdens. Provided that under the onslaught of the mechanical push- you had experience technological advances. button, multi-line reading from scrolls, Our clients are just phones, statutes and reporters in you could now read as wired as we are book form, a bookkeeping system something sent to and expect instant that Charles Dickens would have you from anywhere responses to the recognized easily, and filing cabinets else where someone most complex full of client files and other “important had the patience to questions. In the face papers” that we managed to collect to place the communica - of these demands, the assist in our daily tasks. tion in a machine temptation is to give The site-specific nature of all of and get it to you. It ourselves over to the these matters kept us fairly tied to our beat the slow pace technology and literally offices and to the Courthouse where of regular mail. You work every waking access to the records required mastery had to be careful, hour. My view is: of the Russell Index System and lifting however, not to “not so fast.” We a lot of heavy books. have to keep this in When we left the perspective and maintain office either to go to the balance between work and an appointment or moderation in all things. our personal lives. —Aristotle home, we were com - Regardless of the specific pletely disconnected area of your practice, you are until we arrived at some location with expose your scrolls to any heat source not so important or indispensable that a land-line telephone. Generally, our or the communication, like the Magic you have to be available 24/7. The fellow lawyers and clients observed an Screen of old, would disappear. Clients Commander in Chief, the Secretary of unwritten rule that calls to home were quickly caught on and started to send Defense, the Secretary of Homeland reserved for real emergencies or purely documents at 10:00 a.m. for a review Security, the Director of Intelligence, social reasons. Despite the limitations at 10:30 a.m. The quickening of the the Director of the FBI, and medical of the technology, we actually pace was upon us; the genie was out of practitioners who treat life-or-death managed to practice law profitably. the bottle. situations need to be in contact The first crack in this pastoral Today, our technology enables us to constantly with their world, but you setting came with the advent of car access information from virtually any do not. Use the technology to your phones and facsimile machines. Car location instantly and reliably. We can advantage, attend one of the Young phones were bags that connected to perform legal research from our desks Lawyers’ seminars on the various the cigarette lighter port in our cars without trudging through Digests, subjects, but do not think that you and resembled a car battery with a Reporters, and Shepards. We do not continued on page 4 AUGUST 2010 sid ebar • 3 Committee Reports Policy Change Affects Real Estate Transactions Real Estate Law Committee closing on the purchase of the names who enjoyed by James J. Conte, Chair real estate for the estate you are their tenure and representing to determine what the appreciated the “big he Real Estate Law Committee specific requirements will be so you picture” perspective it and the joint Orphans’ Court/ can properly prepare your client provided them. All TElder Law Committees want in advance of the execution of the contributed their to inform attorneys about the major Agreement of Sale and prior to own special talents, change in policy adopted by most the scheduled closing. were generous with national title insurance companies. their time, and felt Title insurance Nominating Committee they took part in a agencies have been building process that advised that it is no We Want continues today.