In October 2007, Lieutenant Colonel Darling retired from the United States Marine Corps with just over twenty years of active-duty service. He flew attack helicopters in Desert Shield and Desert Storm during the first Gulf War and in Somalia, Africa, in support of Operation Restore Hope. In June 1998, he was selected to fly as a presidential pilot with Marine Helicopter Squadron One and in October 2000, was handpicked to work for the White House Military Office, Airlift Operations Department. It was in that capacity that Lt. Col. Darling supported the President, Vice President and National Security Advisor in the President’s Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) on September 11, 2001. 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 Counter terrorism 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. He is the President and CEO of Flash Emergency Management, a crisis leadership training and technology company located in Stafford, Virginia