Starts:

Tuesday September 16, 2025

    5:30 PM

Ends:

    7:00 PM

*For non-member event reservations: please email pfitzgerald@democraticwoman.org or telephone 202-232-7363 Ext. 402 (voicemails will also be accepted).*

The White House bunker was quiet the morning of September 11, 2001. Suddenly—seemingly out of nowhere—a series of sky-jacked passenger jetliners crashed into Manhattan’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Robert J Darling, an expert in counterterrorism, was at the center of the White House response. 

Darling dashed past grim-faced Secret Service agents to the President's Emergency Operations Center in the bunker beneath the White House, where he was met by Vice President Dick Cheney and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice. Within minutes, Darling passed on a direct order: Shoot down any plane entering the Washington, DC, airspace.

Now retired from the military, Darling will present his minute-by-minute, white-knuckle account of events on that disastrous morning. His riveting story, captured in “24 Hours Inside the President’s Bunker, 9/11/01: The White House,” reads like an episode of the TV thriller "24." The book will be available for purchase. 

EVENT DETAILS: 

• Remarks and Q&A, in-person and via Zoom. 

• 5:30 p.m. complimentary hors d'oeuvres and cash bar; 6–7 p.m. program and book signing. 

• Zoom only: $10. In-person: members: $20, nonmembers: $25 plus tax.

Darling retired from the United States Marine Corps in 2007 after 20 years of active duty service. He flew Cobra attack helicopters in Desert Shield and Desert Storm during the first Gulf War and in Somalia 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, he was selected to work for The White House Military Office, Airlift Operations Department. It was in that capacity that then-Major Darling supported the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) on 9-11. 

At the urging of his family and friends, Darling wrote his memoir and continues to share his personal experience and knowledge of crisis leadership with many military, corporate, and university audiences nationwide. He is the president of Quantitative Analytics, LLC, an aviation operations and logistics consulting company located in Stafford, Virginia. 

*Please note: Guests, with the exception of members’ spouses and domestic partners, may attend a maximum of three paid events from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026. After the third event, they must join the Club to continue attending events.*