Lieutenant General (retired) Mark Hertling served for 38 years in the US Army as a tanker and cavalryman, serving at every level from tank platoon leader on the East-West German border to Commander of the 7th Army. He retired in December 2012, after serving as the Commanding General of US Army, Europe (USAREUR), where he led over 60,000 soldiers and partnered with the Armies of 51 nations. 

LTG Hertling served a total of 38 months in combat – as a major in a cavalry squadron during Desert Storm, as an Assistant Division Commander in the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad in 2003-4, and as the Commander of 1st Armored Division and Multinational Task Force Iron in Northern Iraq in 2007-8. His other commands include the Army’s Initial Military Training Command (Basic Training), the Army’s National Training Center in California, the Joint Multinational Training Center in Europe, an Armored Brigade Combat Team focused on reinforcing the Korean Peninsula, and the Army’s first Stryker Brigade. Hertling was the Joint Staff War Planner (J7) during 9/11 and after.  

After retiring from the Army, LTG Hertling became a Senior Vice President for a major healthcare organization in Orlando from 2013-2018.  He was appointed to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition by President Obama in 2014, and in 2021 he was appointed by President Biden to be a commissioner of the American Battle Monuments Commission, where he now serves as Chairman.  Mark was an adjunct scholar at West Point’s Modern War Institute from 2014-2020.  He currently serves as an adjunct professor of strategic leadership at the Crummer School of Business at Rollins College, and as an executive member of the Dean's Alliance at Indiana University’s School of Public Health.  Since 2013, Hertling has served as a military and national security analysis for CNN/CNN International.  

Hertling received a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Military Academy in 1975 and taught in the Department of Physical Education at his alma mater from 1983-86. He is a graduate of the School of Advanced Military Studies and the National War College. He also earned a Masters’ Degree in Kinesiology from Indiana University’s School of Public Health, and in 2019 received the John R. Endwright Alumni Service Award from IU, Bloomington.  In 2019, he completed a Doctorate from the Crummer School of Business at Rollins College, defending a thesis addressing approaches to leadership in the healthcare industry. His awards and decorations include three Distinguished Service Medals, five Bronze Stars, the Army Commendation Medal for Valor, the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Badge, the Parachutist Badge, and awards from the governments of Romania, Poland, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. 
 
Mark is married to his best friend, Sue, and they reside in Flagler Beach, Florida. They have two sons, and five grandsons.