From Adelphi to Air Force One: Dr. Robert Darling ’81, MD Reflects on a Lifetime of Service

When Robert Darling '81, MD, arrived at Adelphi University in 1977, he planned to become a physician. Early in his college career, he sought guidance from biology professor Warren Eickelberg-a respected educator, former U.S. Air Force officer and chair of the council that helped develop Adelphi's early pre-professional and joint-degree programs in medicine and dentistry.

Rather than steering Darling toward a traditional medical career, Eickelberg encouraged him to apply to the newly established Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), the nation's military medical school. It proved to be one of the most consequential conversations of Darling's life.

That single conversation launched a career that would eventually take him aboard Air Force One, into the White House and to the front lines of some of the nation's most significant medical and national security challenges. In fact, Darling often reflects on the professors who helped shape his future, crediting Eickelberg-as well as biology faculty members Ramon Grillo, PhD and Gayle Insler, PhD-with providing the encouragement, mentorship and educational foundation that made an unconventional path seem possible.

Commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy while attending medical school, Darling earned his medical degree in 1985 before training as a naval flight surgeon. His early assignments took him aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, where he helped care for more than 6,000 sailors and supported naval aviators operating some of the military's most advanced tactical aircraft.

As his career progressed, he served at the United States Naval Academy, cared for Marines at Camp Pendleton and later joined the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, where he helped strengthen the nation's medical defenses against biological threats.

In 1996, Darling became the first emergency medicine physician to serve the President of the United States at the White House and aboard Air Force One and Marine One. Working alongside the Secret Service, he prepared for every imaginable medical emergency while helping safeguard the nation's highest elected leaders.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Darling participated in the investigation and medical response to anthrax attacks in several U.S. locations, another chapter in a career dedicated to protecting others. After more than 25 years of active-duty service, Darling retired from the Navy as a captain and shifted from caring for individual patients to ensuring entire hospitals and healthcare systems were prepared for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive threats.

Military retirement did not mark the end of Darling's service. Returning to the institution where his own military medical journey began, Darling joined the faculty at USUHS, mentoring future military physicians and directing disaster preparedness and worldwide humanitarian medicine programs. Since 2009, he has been in private practice and serves as medical director at Crisis24 Private Strategic Group.