Join us for Part 2 of "Marine One" with Robert Darling, a retired US Marine Corps officer. He shares his insights on life, leadership, and service, drawing from his experiences as a Marine One Pilot, including training, handling a Cobra helicopter, and working in the Air Mobility Command. Bob also offers lessons on leadership and the influence of his military career. Join us for his powerful stories and reflections.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
Join us for Part 2 of "Marine One" with Robert Darling, a retired US Marine Corps officer. He shares his insights on life, leadership, and service, drawing from his experiences as a Marine One Pilot, including training, handling a Cobra helicopter, and working in the Air Mobility Command. Bob also offers lessons on leadership and the influence of his military career. Join us for his powerful stories and reflections.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
It was such a tragic day, but it was a really a great day to see the American spirit rally up right. There was no Democrat, there was no Republican, there was no conservative or liberal. It was all Americans fighting back, putting flags out there to say this country is not going down this way. We're going to go defend our freedoms all the way around the world.
Speaker 1:On the last episode of Blue Grit Podcast and when I was at the basic school, one of the exercises was to call in Cobra gunships to blow up stuff. It's called the nine line three. Volvo second hit the nine line three and I started fumbling on the radio, fumbling around, and this captain, this Cobra helicopter was lieutenant, where are you? I go, sir, I'm on hill. Alfa Bravo one, zero one. I'll be right there. And he landed his Cobra right on top of my position at his co-filot. Jump out, come over to me and go. This is you, this is a target. Clear me hot, I'll take care of the rest. And he jumped back in and took off and I was like that was God himself. I want to be that guy.
Speaker 1:I put in a package for Marine helicopter squadron one. I was now a major. I had over a thousand flight hours. All the right, quals. And now it's. Can I go and fly the president? And you have to put a package in and go before board. We'll get that place cleaned up. Cars, everybody's coming back to Andrews, great. And as we're going down the schedule, all of a sudden somebody came running into the room and goes hey, quick, turn on the TV set. Small plane just hit the North tower, the World Trade Center.
Speaker 2:And you've been from New York, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:Well, everybody stopped what you're doing. We turn the TV set on and we're looking at that iconic photo of a crystal clear blue day in Manhattan. And why would a pilot careen into 110 story landmark when, literally, you got to Hudson River to your left or the East River to your right, and most of us could glide? If a plane lost its engine, you could reach LaGuardia. It's that close and we knew, you knew right. Then it's going to be a different day.
Speaker 3:So my experience has no aviation in it. I walk up to the back door of the police station assistant chief sitting on the back porch, back steps of the station there and he goes man, do you hear? Some dumb ass flew a plane into a building and I said what? And he said yeah, the World Trade Center. And I said, like just some redneck in a Cessna. And he goes yeah, that's kind of what's saying, just a plane. And I'm like that's crazy, really cool assistant chief. He goes I got a big TV in my office, you're going to go in there and hot out and watch it. I said, yeah, so we turn it on. It's smoking.
Speaker 3:Prior to the second plane. I have no aviation background at all, so I'm thinking, I'm just trying to process through, how does a dumb ass not see that building and a Cessna? And I'm kind of thinking, does you know there's like a Piper Cub or a Cessna make a hole in a building like that? You know, wouldn't it maybe just bounce off, or I don't know? Well, then the second plane hit. Wow, your background, your experience, it pops up. You're realizing that's not a redneck in a Cessna.
Speaker 1:We have a full blown terrorist event unfolding right before our eyes in the city of New York. Everybody then comes and Colonel comes in. He goes everybody, stop what you're doing. Eyeballs on me, stand by for a lot of White House designated missions, because whenever we have a national tragedy, every government agency has got some role to play. They either, they all want to get airlifted, and it doesn't matter whether you're energy, commerce, interior, dod, fema, everybody wants to get to the site to do something that they're responsible for. So they asked the DOD, the Department of Defense, to airlift them. But if you call the White House, you go. Hey boss, this is FEMA, federal Emergency Management Agency, I need to be there. I got 75 doctors Got to be on the ground in New York and the White House says go, you become what we call a one alpha, one priority mission. We will push baby food out of the back of the next available C17, c5, c130, whatever we have in the inventory to get you, or the White House wants you to be.
Speaker 3:So on that day Debbie's in Florida at the elementary school Laura.
Speaker 1:Laura was on Capitol Hill and moved to the FBI headquarters by her secret service detail when this was unfolding. They wanted to keep her housed up there. Cheney's there with you. He's in the White House. He's in the West Wing his West Wing office at the time. Same thing with Dr Rice. She was in the West Wing.
Speaker 3:Dr Rice is there. Secretary of Defense is at the Pentagon.
Speaker 1:He's at the Pentagon. He's in his office right now and everybody now is starting to fire up the command centers. Over at the Pentagon is a national military command center and over at the White House usually things happen in the situation room which is near the Oval Office. It's not a hardened facility, it's a secure communications room where everything comes in, can be parsed out to where it needs to be and who needs to have it.
Speaker 3:So you guys are sitting there, he comes in and tells you hey, stand by. You guys realize, good God, this day just went from pretty easy to not. Yeah, I'll watch the second plane hit.
Speaker 1:We all see the second plane and that's it. And soon as that hit, everybody went to really battle stations, if you will, for lack of a better term. We were now on the phone with the Pentagon. We were diverting every Air Force heavy lift airplane asset to go and park them over at Joint Base Andrews, 15 miles to the east, because we knew the White House wants all we got. Everything is got to go to New York City. Wow, wow.
Speaker 2:So at what point did y'all start getting directions from anybody? At that point? Was it just basic and meetings until kind of explain that process after that.
Speaker 1:Tuesday ended up requesting the one alpha one priorities. The government agencies are calling into airlift ops. We're passing it up to the deputy White House Chief of Staff, well, as we're doing the one alpha ones, getting planes diverted, talking to the Pentagon going, let's stack everything out of the sky, get it over to Andrews, get it on the ground. An airplane over flew the White House, which is prohibited airspace. This jet was so large and loud we all froze right there. Everybody ran to the window and goes big white jet hard left hand turn. Hey, we got breaking news fire and explosion at the Pentagon.
Speaker 3:Oh, that was the plane that hit the Pentagon.
Speaker 1:And it turns out it was not the plane. We were doing a large Air Force nuclear command and control exercise. We had parked one of our national level assets and Air Force E4B I don't know if you've ever seen one. It's a 747 with a weird cone on top. It was part of the exercise Similar to an A-Wax yes, it's similar to that.
Speaker 1:And when the second tower was hit, unbeknownst to us, the Pentagon activated that aircrew and that airplane and said get to the president of the United States If he wants to climb off Air Force One and climb on to this E4B, or what we call the National Airborne Ops Center, the Doomsday plane essentially it's a flying Pentagon then those two 747s need to work out where they're going to make the switch. And then when that plane took off real world laser line, sarasota, florida it made a left hand turn and flew right over the White House. They didn't care. It was a real world military mission in progress. The vice president, not knowing what that was or us, got picked up by his elbows by the Secret Service and now being evacuated underground.
Speaker 3:And that's Pentagon's being hit about that time, same time.
Speaker 1:Pentagon just got struck.
Speaker 3:Vice President Cheney's getting pulled in, sucked down to the POT. Dr Rice, How'd you end up getting pulled into that chain to go downstairs? Just the that your communication ability.
Speaker 1:Exactly right. And I was the guy on call taking care of the president. So when they all of a sudden the 945, right after that they evacuated the White House Second time in history. First time is February of 1814, dolly Madison running out the back door with a print of George Washington. British were burning down Washington DC. Here it is, 187 years later, we're evacuating the White House. So that boss I worked for that Air Force Colonel said we're out of here. We got to go to the alternate site and I grabbed him and said I can't leave. President Bush is not coming back. Wherever they're going to take him today, he needs snipers, doctors, helicopters, phones. He needs the package and he goes. Then you go across the street, go underground, go into the POT, the president's emergency ops center, the bunker, do logistics and I'll catch up with you later.
Speaker 3:Good, Lord yes, sir, how fast did you all close all airspace in our country?
Speaker 1:It happened at 1014. So about a half hour later we just had that, the, what we thought was a shoot down a flight 93, the order went out and then we found that we didn't shoot it down Shanksville and Shanksville, the plane was on the ground. Heroes, talk about heroes and you know we sometimes we underestimate the American population. Sometimes because we're inundated with social media and the young people today are on their phones. They're not paying attention to their gamers, they're not. They're not gritty enough. And yet 40 ordinary Americans boarded that plane in Newark, new Jersey, on their way to San Francisco. 40 ordinary Americans united themselves Tom Burnett, Todd Beamer, after talking to loved ones.
Speaker 1:Three planes, three targets, fought back hand to hand with terrorists and ultimately crashed that plane in Shanksville, pennsylvania. And that plane was headed to the capital. It was, it was heading to the capital on 9 11. They wanted to hit our financial capital, twin Towers, our military capital, pentagon, and then a symbol of our democratic process, our freedoms, take out the dome on the US Capitol. But it wasn't the military that saved us. It was ordinary Americans that rose up, bought back, saved us that goal.
Speaker 3:And that and that goes back to the resolve in the American spirit. We're going to crash either way. So you're going to crash on my terms, not yours. Yeah, absolutely right. Yeah, I got to do a nighttime tour of the Capitol two or three weeks ago when I was up there, and the amount of history and the amount of history that would have been lost and our it's it's weird to walk through there at night. It's weird to know that plane went down by common every day, Ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things, because I may not have been walking through that building three weeks ago if that, if they hadn't have done that.
Speaker 1:Isn't that cool. It was really. You know it's such a tragic day, but it was a really a great day to see the American spirit rally up right. There was no Democrat, there was no Republican, there was no conservative or liberal. It was all Americans fighting back, putting flags out there to say this country is not going down this way. We're going to go. We're going to go defend our freedoms all the way around the world.
Speaker 2:And everyone got on board as tragic as that they was. You look back and and and. Several days after the fact, you know the, the pride of the American flag on the streets, on every TV station. It was unremarkable. And you and you mentioned we weren't Democrat, we weren't. Nobody saw color, nobody saw political party. The unity that this nation showed was just unbelievable. And I so wish we could. We could maintain that. Of course it's just, sometimes it's not feasible, but it's just a man, whatever, whatever desperate time relief this country.
Speaker 3:I'm watching both chambers, the house and the Senate. Yeah, the ours and the D's go stand united. I think it was the following day in seeing national anthem they sing uh, god bless America.
Speaker 2:God bless America.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 1:On the steps of the Capitol.
Speaker 3:Ours and D's house and Senate was incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know we we high, we hold our law enforcement to high esteem. But after 9, 11, the world held our military and law enforcement to high esteem. You guys couldn't get enough applause going to and from ground zero doing your job to protect people. I think people had a sense of our fragility, right, that we're not this, uh, this nation that can't be attacked. We're not. You know, we're surrounded by 3000 miles of ocean on either side of us. We're not impenetrable. It just happened. People lost their lives and now maybe we need to pause and reflect and thank those people that raise their right hand and do this for a living.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Going back to leadership again. You're standing in the P? O with the vice president of the United States of America, dr Condoleezza rise, who I freaking, love her to death, respect, admire, wish she would come out and run for something to help get our country back on the right direction. Bob Darling, from small town America, a major at that point.
Speaker 1:I was a major Dude?
Speaker 3:Are you just in work mode, make decisions if this than that, or do you ever realize? Good God, I'm standing here with the vice president of the free world, dr Condoleezza Rice, probably one of the smartest women I've ever freaking watched, admired and respected in the POC, in the world crisis, and I'm down here with I'm in the ballgame. I mean, the biggest ballgame in the world.
Speaker 1:Hey, you know what? You don't lose situational awareness. You know you're around the IPC. You know you're around the National Security Advisor, the vice president of the United States, but they're not asking you to pay attention to them, they're asking you to do your job. And what is your job? You compartmentalize to say I need to move assets in defense of the president, I need to get on the phone and start doing things, and they expect no less. They stood behind you, they let the military members do their job and the most vertical chain of command ever laid down, complete, horizontally, and you could have been a lance corporeal and a Marine Corps If you had something to say to the vice president or something to say to the president himself, get it out what's on your mind.
Speaker 1:Wow, they just they're so humble and so professional when you talk about leadership is knowing that there's a time and a place for a chain of command to make sure information is passed correctly and there's another time and a place where time is not on your side and information needs to be shared ASAP. And if you're the guy with the information, give it to him directly. And I was amazed that I'm having conversations with the vice president directly. I'm asking Dr Rice to go and pass this information to him. When he's in the room and she's running like a courier on our behalf, the national security advisor is doing anything we needed her to do. She was humble, she was professional and she was like just keep doing what you're doing and I'm here to help if you need me, you want me to interject my horsepower, you need my help to get something done. I'm here for you. If not, run with it. Incredible, it's cool.
Speaker 3:There were some crazy decisions that had to be made that day shutting down all national air, grounding every plane over the United States of America. The decision that if people aren't going to, I guess, squawk, if they're not going to communicate and they're in the air, we're going to have to start taking down aircraft out of the sky, attacking American aircraft Messaging getting the president home. Is that a fluid deal? Is that there's none of that has ever occurred in our lifetime. How are those happening? Just one after another. Is it a committee? Is it just a? Let's roll with that.
Speaker 1:It's never happened before. We've never we've had ground stops in airspace. We've shut down sections of airspace for one reason or another. Emergency in progress. We never closed the airspace over the United States ever. And watching the secretary of transportation who was in the bunker, norman Manetta, get tapped on the shoulder by the vice president going, I need this to happen, do it now. Calling over to the Herndon Virginia Command Center to order the skies over the United States, clear the people on the other end saying Mr Secretary, we're not properly manned to land 2000 aircraft at the same time, and then to hear on the military radios NORAD, the North American Arrow Defense Command, jump on the network and go. We're in charge, we're taking we're assuming control over the airspace of the United States. And the FAA seamlessly went to be a subordinate agency to the United States Air Force, norad, to help sequence 2000 airliners and get them on the ground without mishap.
Speaker 2:Damn.
Speaker 3:From the time the calls made. In this you may not have this detail From the time the calls made of we're going to clear the sky over the United States of America. How long before that, relatively, there was an all clear.
Speaker 1:That took about 45 minutes, I would think, from my perspective, to get every aircraft down. You know what else is impressive Any given hour. This big country of ours has got 100 Medevac flights in progress People who've been shot, car accidents, snake bite victims, organs going A to B and if we're going to clear the skies, you're going to order that helicopter down in a farmer's field and, through the coordination of the FAA and NORAD and the EMS people and those pilots, we gave every one of them that was in progress a military call sign, a brand new transponder code and we treated them like they were US military flights to get every patient or organ to a hospital.
Speaker 2:Wow, it's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Wow, so my dad works. Before he passed he was working for Southwest Airlines, and so I'm familiar with how difficult that is. That's not an easy task.
Speaker 1:No, and you know. We didn't run off one runway. We didn't lose one person to a diabetic coma. We didn't blow over a Cessna by a large plane. We didn't have any aviation, air or ground Miss.
Speaker 2:Heps.
Speaker 1:First time in history, we cleared the skies without a single miss.
Speaker 3:You're standing in the room that day in the discussion turns to shooting aircraft out of the sky as a last resort. God forbid last resort. What was that like? Listening to and processing that, the input needing to be made that we shoot down an American airliner? I don't know, was there 270, probably citizens on a American airliner Up to 140.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, on average, right, if it's a full aircraft could have 300 people on there or you know some as little as 40, like flight 93 had 40. But that was a defining moment when they went to, we got a potential hijacked aircraft heading towards Washington DC and they moved from information to operations and they said get me fighters, get them out of Otis Air National Guard Base, let me know when they're airborne, stand by to shoot this aircraft down. It was like getting the game. It's time to stop wondering what's going on and it's time to start taking action to defend America. And you could see the civilians and the staffers who were in the POC moved out of the way. They got against the wall. It was a military mission in progress and the vice president talking to me, who's talking to the Pentagon and we're ordering these fighters airborne and everybody else was just out of the way going. I can't believe I'm watching this happen.
Speaker 3:And that shift is OK. We're reactive, we got they sucker punched us, but by God, now we get off defense, now we get on offense.
Speaker 1:We're going on offense and vice president Cheney and I don't know if I ever expressed this enough His wife wasn't sitting, who was also there. She wasn't in the other room at the executive conference table. She was two inches away from him, making sure he was mentally in the game. He knew the enormity of those decisions. I'm going to take lives out of the sky to save people on the ground. And his wife was like do your job, keep doing your job. You know what the right thing is to do this.
Speaker 3:And literally man. That almost makes me.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I got chill bumps or cry. That power couple and I'm watching her make sure he's OK mentally and physically and to keep going forward Really incredible.
Speaker 3:That's, that's literally. You know there's a cliche that decisions on the way to the world on it or that literally is literally. You're going to kill Americans. You're about to have to make a decision to kill Americans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and seeing your wife, his wife, going. You're OK, keep going.
Speaker 2:So the irony in this is several days ago. Me and Clint were on the phone talking about some different things, about different associations, and I think it's man of honor and they're in the ship and they're a submarine. And one of the most iconic scenes of that movie is when there's 20 sailors stuck in the bottom of this vessel, in the very bottom, and they've been, I think, been shot by missile or torpedo, and the captain looks down at the sailor and he said seal that hatch, seal that hatch. Well, you know, and I know that by sealing that hatch he's killing 20 of that guy's brothers, yeah, but if he doesn't, they're going to end the mission and the whole ship goes down. And it was time to seal that hatch, just like Chaney did that day, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know I go back it's a great point. And I go back to what you always talk about leadership. People get promoted and sometimes they don't understand the enormity of the position they've just been promoted into, because it's great. You get a couple of stars in the collar right, you get to, you get the rank, you know you're, you're the, the Commodore, or you're the captain or whatever, the commissioner. And then at some point, when things start going bad and they look to you, are you ready? Yeah, did you mentally transition from peacetime operations to wartime operations and are you capable of making that transition, to make that tough call? Yeah, many aren't, but a few are. And we hope that training that we all undergo and when the test of time comes to your doorstep, we hope that you know you're the right guy who has the courage to make that tough call.
Speaker 3:And what a blessing, what a blessing for you to be exposed there. Thank God, you were there to help provide input that they needed.
Speaker 3:But I think God that Dr Rice and Cheney were in there that day, cause they're and I'm not taking a shot at today's administration. There's been bad administrations in the past. They were the right people at the right time in um. Indecisiveness is the worst thing that a leadership can have. That leader can have or not not possesses decisiveness. My biggest pet peeve in the world is paralysis by analysis. Just make it a shit. I'd rather you make a bad decision than just not make a freaking decision and love them or not, and I know there's a lot of people that have whatever they would like to say about um. Honorable vice president Cheney and I love Dr Rice, but she talking about very intelligent Insta they have a ton of institutional knowledge about what it needs to make those type level of decisions and two people with ginormous brass wavos let's, let's. We got to make calls, let's start making calls. And you may not like them or their politics, you can, whatever it is, but thank God those two people were in there that day, yeah.
Speaker 1:It was vice president Cheney's greatest moment in America, for all of us. He was the right guy. He was a. He was a congressman from Wyoming, a chief of staff for president Ford, a secretary of defense for the first president Bush, now vice president. He wrote those war plans. He had the experience we needed that day to get America moving forward. It was truly his greatest moment. We would have followed him up the highest hill Right.
Speaker 3:And he had the persona. He had kind of that old Pat persona of I'll make a call, charge the mountain. I mean it was a should we charge the mountain His decisions? I mean you feel like when he makes the call frigging, we're making the call, let's roll yeah.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't, and it wasn't effort, effortlessly, effortlessly done. He had to weigh the enormity of that call and he still had the courage to make the call. Same thing with Dr Rice she was right there supporting him, supporting us. She was the powerhouse that we all needed to be able to do our job with authority. And without that combination of Dr Rice and vice president Cheney, I don't know how the day would have unfolded. I really don't know what would have happened.
Speaker 3:I love powerhouse because I've. It's a great. I've always tried to figure out what I would describe her as powerhouse. It's probably. I'm like man. That's one person. I wouldn't want to debate her. I wouldn't want to. She would. She would be sweet as can be playing the piano. If you guys have never looked at Dr Connolly's rights, she's freaking amazing. But I thought, man, I wouldn't want to mess with her.
Speaker 1:She's you know in our country needs her now like so bad. Yes, you know you were mentioning the political divide and just how bad things have gotten. There were good people like Dr Rice won't run for office because it's not about moving America forward. It's now about what dirt can we find?
Speaker 3:on rice.
Speaker 1:And how can we talk badly about her, you know, in the press and bring her down and and silliness that they're like. I'm just not up for that. Or are you going to go look at my family history and find something wrong with me?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If you're, if you're interested in me contributing with my experience and knowledge and move the country forward, maybe I would run for president.
Speaker 2:Was that a you personally?
Speaker 1:So we're well, dr Rice okay, then me, then me, then you. I don't know if we're going to turn this into a, and if you're out there, dr Rice, I'm willing to be your vice president.
Speaker 3:What called here blue. I would beg her to. I think she's too toxic. She's like well, why would I dabble? It's just purely toxic. Now there's nothing to be accomplished because it's just a Jerry springer episode. Love her to death. The fire alarms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was up with the fire alarm? I don't see that on the news. Oh yeah, come on, I don't, I don't get that.
Speaker 2:What's happening, yeah, yeah, when it's coming out of that, in America, the hunter changing.
Speaker 1:But you know, getting back to this, this crew, getting back to you and Clint, I'm really proud of what we do for our law enforcement. I'm really proud of the fact that now this, this, this titanium blue line is being respected, more so than even pre COVID right, Everybody wanted to fund the police and now they realized the repercussions of that. Yeah, and now everybody's like well, you guys come back.
Speaker 3:If.
Speaker 1:I throw money at you, we clean up my city, and it's like oh, I guess you thought we were just eating donuts and not really doing anything. And now you see what happens at the repercussions of not having law enforcement. Keep tabs on the criminals that are are destroying San Francisco. They're destroying Columbus, Ohio, they're, they're just. Austin, texas. They're running a muck and now we can't. We can't get our law enforcement to do enough.
Speaker 3:The experiment failed. The experiment failed.
Speaker 2:And it's continuing to with Harris County, barrie County, dallas County, travis County, and what's crazy is that some of these I mean most of these cities, that that that you see the crime increases being funded by a guy in California, which that's a whole separate topic. But yeah, I think we're on the bounce back now. I think people have have have woke up, no pun intended, about the realization of not, not, not really funding police departments and not having, you know, police barbers backs, and it's it's affecting their, their citizens and their and their communities within there, the politicians at hand.
Speaker 1:So you know, I just came from Tucson sector. I was telling Clintus earlier and I got a brief by the Border Patrol agent from Tucson sector who were saying hey, our hands are tied. Everybody is now working seven days a week. We gather up everybody that walks across the border, we process them and then the DAs say let them go. They get a court date 10 years from now to get a hearing on whether they should be here or not. They're gone. They're they're, they're now. They're lost in our system. They're walking around. God only knows what they're up to, where they're going and why they're going there and we lose tabs on them.
Speaker 3:And they're not, and they're not Hispanics coming across their OTM.
Speaker 2:So there's there's the Mexicans coming across. I heard this the other day that the speaking of 9-11 that are now our federal air marshals. Did you guys hear about this? Our federal air marshals are now being deployed to our nation's border to process illegal evidence coming across.
Speaker 3:Cause that's an air marshals, exactly Because now the current administration realizes, man, I think we screwed up.
Speaker 2:We should've maybe had a tidy on this. And now a federal air marshals, who are supposed to be in charge and securing our, our you know our sky eyes in the sky are now having to process legal evidence. And uh, who is the uh secretary of defense? Now, I'm sorry, the department of defense, uh, secretary Austin?
Speaker 1:No, uh yeah, yes, he has now transitioned over into an app.
Speaker 2:20 seconds is what you can process in legal immigrant coming across our country. 20 seconds, and what's going to happen?
Speaker 1:right, we're going to have, unfortunately, we're, we're teeing ourselves up for another tragedy Yep, 100%. And then we're going to go into react mode and we're we're going to say where were you guys, how'd you let it happen? And what's? You know the cause of this? What can we do? And and these folks are now over, they're flooding our prisons, they're overwhelming our systems, they and, uh, I just don't know how we reverse this or how we reverse this, or how we can change to keep the population that's counting on us safe. Yeah, yeah, is um, it's, it's going to get away from us. Something has to change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, brother uh, is there anything else we missed out on?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I want to hit real quick.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Small town, rural New York, goes on to do all the you've accomplished. There's a vacuum in law enforcement of leadership, true, strong leadership, and I guess kind of hit it on twofold. What are some traits? What would you tell a vacuum if you're standing in the audience your audience is 300 police chiefs out here. What would you share with them about helping get law enforcement back on the right track? And most of them are in it for politics, not to lead men and women in law enforcement and we talk about on here a lot about.
Speaker 3:You don't have to have a title to be a leader. I mean, in the Marine Corps, lance Corporal and the squads got a couple of people under him. I mean they're, they're leading. We have a lot of young listeners with police explorers that are still in high school. What would Bob, what would a lieutenant colonel share twofold with 15, 16 year old kid out there that wants to think, damn, I'd like to lead something someday. I would like to be in a mix and make a difference in our country. And what would you tell the 55 year old chief that's more worried about politics right now than actually trying to take care of the men and women that a three and a man agency is expecting him to lead. What are some, what are some thoughts on that?
Speaker 1:You know, I have the honor really of speaking to the FBI National Academy those classes of sheriffs yeah, police chiefs and I get to do about four times a year and my message to them is you got to stop and breathe and you got to train. Leadership is not an end state. You just don't all of a sudden become a leader and you're good to go. It's an endless journey of learning and challenging and doing and passing on to others your experience, your knowledge, giving other people a chance to actually get into trenches and and see what it's like to make those decisions in times of crisis. You got to train, you got to stop, you got to carve out some time and you've got to start growing your next generation behind you.
Speaker 1:Your period is going to come to an end. You're the chief. You got a few years left. Then what? How well have you prepared to workforce proactively to replace you? And the only way to do that is to bring an expert to take time to learn from others. Do a couple of tabletop exercises, send somebody to that class, have them come back to brief everybody else on what they learn. You have to make leadership a part of the job.
Speaker 2:It's intentional.
Speaker 1:It'd be intentional about it. It can't just be what we do here, as we protect and serve them and we all go out and do it. You got to take time to grow and to kind of enhance your workforce. If you don't do that, there's going to be a deeper and deeper chasm of vacuum, because the senior people will leave and the junior people that now become middle managers and seniors never had the opportunity to get hands on what's funny.
Speaker 3:You said that about a year ago. I'm talking to a chief and he goes yeah, I'm about to punch out of here, I'm about to pop smoke, so that's cool. So you got somebody in mind, he goes. Now I got four assistant chiefs and they're none of them. None of those idiots are can take over.
Speaker 3:And he was really boastful to me about that and I could tell he thought highly of himself and that it spoke well, that they're not remotely what who he is and what he is. And finally, my discretion left me and I told him that's not really a reflection on them, negative, that's a reflection on you, because if they've been your assistant chiefs for a period of years, you should be on the phone telling me I have so damn many guys here that could take my job tomorrow or women here that could take them. I can, if I get ran over by a bus tonight, I got four people, my four assistant chiefs, while all fist fight because every one of them are bad asses and they could all take over. And of course he didn't appreciate that. But I'm thinking, man, you're taking pot shots at your people like you've done something well and you failed them If you don't have at least one out of four and you're bragging none of them like they're all idiots, and to the point.
Speaker 3:You just made out the end on a man thinking man, you're not. You should be grooming those guys, you should, and if they don't replace you, let them go replace somewhere else. What a greater honor. I hate Alabama, but in bill and I'm not a bill Belichick fan, but regardless, freakin, half the college coaches started at under him at Alabama. Half the NFL coaches started under billichick. And, uh, whether you like them or not, those guys are our leader builders and mentors and they, they're growing leaders like crazy.
Speaker 2:And what's even more crazy is the fact those police chiefs typically have had a respectable career where they've actually moved up with the chains and they've they've got some kind of education. Look at the sheriffs in Texas. I mean, I worked for a sheriff that had no business in leadership, uh, and I'm thankful that I'm here at TNPA now, but I mean that the arrogance and uh that some of these leaders have in law enforcement in Texas is scary.
Speaker 1:I'd say the greatest leader I've ever known. When I was the first lieutenant in the squadron he was a squadron commander. His name is a lieutenant colonel Ken Hill. I was fortunate enough to your point right that we need leaders to groom. I was fortunate enough to be a pilot in that squadron. He he briefed, we were doing a night vision goggle mission with six cobras on goggles carrying ordinance, going to hit a target to get back home. And I'm just one of the newbies, I'm first lieutenant Bob, back bench in this whole thing. And at the end of that mission brief, he stood up and he goes first.
Speaker 1:Lieutenant darling, I sure hope you were paying attention. You got the lead and I ended up getting in his aircraft and I had to run the entire division on night vision goggles on that mission, on that mission and I struggled and I failed and I made a mistake and all these things. And he watched my back. But what he taught me in the three hours was wow, we're all part of this mission and on any given day any one of us could be asked to lead. Wow and uh, man, I was sweaty when we got back. But man, I learned so much from that guy. I never forgot the fact. He put me on the spot and I and now I really pay attention, because any one of us can be called at any given time- 100% Well, and what a great way to do it, rather than making it seem like he's punking you out or step up rookie.
Speaker 3:It was hey man, let's see what you got. Let's learn from this. And I tell everybody all the time, and sometimes my family doesn't appreciate it, but I'm like, I don't fail, I learn. I'd rather look at it as I learned, because I feel a lot. I fall forward, a more than I would ever want to, but it's the trial and error, it's the, it's the full bird, throwing you in the hot seat and letting you fumble through it and work through it and, yeah, and the idea is to let me fail it, to let me lead right, and then he's got my back, he's got my left and right limits.
Speaker 1:He's going to make sure that we get through this. Okay and uh, make me successful. And that's the key is not to put somebody on the spot to watch them fail, but to put them on the spot to watch them grow.
Speaker 2:But I think the current failures of the current law enforcement leadership, those that are out there because we do have some phenomenal leaders within law enforcement, and I'm not me and Claire, both are in grants and you but I think the failures of today's law enforcement, those that that are failing, is the intimidation factor, right, I think that the ones that the, the failed leaders that are intimidated by their subordinates of taking their position, they view it differently than what you just said. It's a threat, it's a threat 100%, and or that they're not getting the spotlight that they deserve. You know, um, but you know.
Speaker 3:I don't want to highlight you cause it's a threat or not. Make you look good, and not me, yeah.
Speaker 1:Exactly Right. And you know you get a lot of lip service on what servant leadership is or transformational leadership, but do we practice it Right? Do we have the time to practice it? And unfortunately, I think, um, they say no budget, no time, does it happen? And then we're wondering why the Peter principle took off and this person is now in charge.
Speaker 3:So the 20, 22 year old kids sitting out there, I don't know. I'll scratch that. What would? What would I know you're 42 years old now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been moisturizing like a big dog.
Speaker 3:Thank God, alta. What would 42 year old Bob Darling tell 16 year old Bob Darling, 10th grader at small town, new York High School? What would you tell Bob Darling now?
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a great question, I would say. You know it's time to grow up kind of mature. It stopped doing childish things and start getting. It's never too early to get in the game. Read a book, get around people who don't. You're not threatened by, but you're willing to learn by, because the world is coming at you pretty fast. I felt like I stayed a child too long and it wasn't until I was halfway through college and all of a sudden I was like, wow, I'm, you know, I got mediocre grades and life's coming at me and I'm lucky to have the Marine Corps as an opportunity for me to go and catch up and grow. I would like to take that 16 year old and say it's today, today's the day. Mentally, physically, emotionally. You're going to get around people that are going to groom you for success. So you're not behind the eight ball when the day comes and it's time for you to make that choice.
Speaker 2:Great.
Speaker 3:I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do too. I love it. Well, I think that's probably a good one to end on. What do we know?
Speaker 3:Anything.
Speaker 1:No, you guys have been. I mean, what an honor really for me.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:It's 24 hours inside the president's no. Clint was nice enough to have me here. Obviously, clinton, I are friends, tyler and I are buds and the fact that they are talking about leadership and anybody who wants an opportunity to read about my story in this book. I captured my time flying Cobra helicopters and, obviously, my time in the White House bunker on 9 11.
Speaker 2:You can check it out there in the bio and link, and we're going to pop something up. Where's it going to be at clamp the link probably appear.
Speaker 3:if you're in the Air Force, it has big words in it. If you're in the army, it has fine print in it. If you're in the Marines, it's got pictures. I got pop ups Right out. It's got pictures.
Speaker 2:Brother, I appreciate you coming on. Man, it's good seeing you again. I haven't seen you since the last Irving conference. I think it's one last time we saw him. But, man, it's always a pleasure. Tyler, thank you very much, absolutely being with you, clint you know great to see you, and my wife actually found it You're going to be here today. She was pretty, pretty bummed that she couldn't come by here. So I'm not sure who's the bigger fan Me or her. So, you're stunning looks and your charismatic ways.
Speaker 1:Well, you told me this morning I have a face for radio.
Speaker 2:I didn't, that was Clint.
Speaker 3:That was 100% Clint. So what's the future hold for Bob? What's going on with Bob?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm still on my mission, right? My mission ever since 9 11 is to build resilience. I got a small company called Flash Emergency Management and I write business continuity plans. I do tabletop exercises, I get with organizations to kind of prepare them for the coming crisis. So when it happens they have all the tools they need to be resilient.
Speaker 3:Cool, I cannot. I've been waiting on this for a while. Cannot thank you enough for coming in and gracing us with this, and always damn good seed.
Speaker 2:We got to ask him the questions rapid fire. But maybe twist up what's his favorite chopper, that's easy.
Speaker 1:That's easy.
Speaker 2:So we always end each episode by asking three rapid fire questions. One is what's your favorite law enforcement movie or cop movie, or line from cop movie?
Speaker 1:You know, wrap, wrap top of that, I asked you. I was telling my wife about this too. I saw the villain last night. Guy reminded me of Bruce Willis and the burning towers and stuff like that. Mccain, john McCain, yep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's your favorite. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, what is your favorite? So?
Speaker 2:we usually ask what's your favorite cop car, but since you've never driven up a cop car, what was your favorite aircraft to fly when you were in the?
Speaker 1:service. Obviously, the Cobra was unbelievable. Right, it's like a Corvette, two pilots, all the bullets you can carry, but flying the big CH 53, echo, seven belated 50 passenger thing, I mean it'll pick up your house, it's pretty, it's like a couch up front too, it's like really comfortable and fast and powerful. But then again you go into the, uh, the white tops and you know you're pretty sweet too, I mean. So I, it's hard to pick a favorite. Let's go back to Cobras.
Speaker 2:If you were to, if you were to pick up a troll car, which one would you say that's your favorite or you think is the best?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw a couple of chargers out there that look pretty, that look pretty good. Yeah, right, so in a state, trooper now went by me yesterday, but he was in an SUV. You guys got the.
Speaker 2:Tahoe SUV. They look pretty good. They look pretty. They do look pretty good. And what's your favorite drink of choice? You'd like to relax and cut loose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not, not Bud Light, no, I'm a beer drinker, right. So, uh, you know I I go to Stella like Modelo, I like Miller light. You know I like if I'm, if I'm going to pull a drink off the shelf. You know there's these things called mules. Have you ever had a mule? Yeah, those are, my wife makes the best mule.
Speaker 2:Mosquiao mule right, yes, yeah.
Speaker 3:Very nice.
Speaker 2:Well cool, you got anything else.
Speaker 3:No, I know you burn up the air miles. Please stay safe, holler, when you're in Texas, holler when you're not in Texas. If we can ever do anything to support you, please 100%.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks very much, and you're the same thing. When you're up in DC, let me know I will. I'd like to see you both again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'd love it. You guys stay safe out there. Uh, again it's back in the winter months. It's starting to become, you know, that's kind of the increase of violence against the law enforcement, for whatever reason. God bless you and, as always, may.
Speaker 1:God bless Texas.