Lt. Col. Darling retired from the United States Marine Corps in 2007 with just over twenty years of active duty service. After an impressive early career piloting attack helicopters in Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and as a presidential pilot with Marine Helicopter Squadron One, he was handpicked in October 2000 to work for the White House Military Office, Airlift Operations Department. It was in this position that, during the attack of September 11, 2001, he supported the President, Vice President and National Security Advisor in the underground President's Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) and witnessed unprecedented leadership and decision making at the highest levels of our government.

As a public speaker on crisis leadership and decision making, Bob has addressed numerous academic, government, and military organizations to include Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and as a guest lecturer on the subject of Crisis Leadership and Counterterrorism at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Bob is the author of “24 Hours Inside the President’s Bunker, 9/11/01: The White House" and the President and CEO of Turning Point Crisis Management-USA, a crisis leadership, decision making, and management consulting company located in Stafford, Virginia.