Soldier. Scholar. Leader.

During his military career, Hertling spent 38 months in combat. He served as a major and operations officer of a cavalry squadron during Operation Desert Storm, as Assistant Division Commander of the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad in 2003–2004, and later as Commander of the 1st Armored Division and Multinational Task Force Iron in northern Iraq during the 2007–2008 surge. His command experience also includes leading the Army’s Initial Military Training enterprise, command of armored and Stryker brigade combat teams, assignments at the National Training Center in California and the Joint Multinational Training Center in Europe, and service as the Joint Staff War Planner (J7) immediately prior to the 11 September 2001, terrorist attacks.

After retiring from the Army in 2012, Hertling transitioned to the private sector as a Senior Vice President at AdventHealth, the nation’s largest faith-based nonprofit healthcare organization, where he focused on global partnerships, community health, and leadership development. He was asked to design and lead a healthcare leadership program, work that led to his first book, Growing Physician Leaders (2016), which became a niche bestseller in healthcare. His second book, If I Don’t Return: A Father’s Wartime Journal, was published by Ballast Books in 2026.

Hertling is widely recognized for his work as a military and national security analyst. From 2014 to 2024, he served as a senior analyst for CNN and CNN International, where his deep experience in Europe and the Middle East made him a frequent voice on the wars in Ukraine and the region. He currently writes for The Bulwark, is the co-host of the Bulwark’s “Command Post,” and appears on MSNBC as a freelance national security analyst.

President Obama appointed Mark to the Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition (2014–2017) and he was appointed by President Biden to the American Battle Monuments Commission, where Hertling served as Chairman from 2021 to 2023. He was an adjunct scholar at West Point’s Modern War Institute from 2014 to 2020. He currently serves as Professor of Practice in Strategic Leadership at the Crummer School of Business at Rollins College. He also serves as an executive member of the Dean’s Alliance at Indiana University’s School of Public Health.

Hertling is a 1975 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he later taught in the Department of Physical Education and was named Instructor of the Year in 1985. He holds a master’s degree in Kinesiology from Indiana University, a master’s in Military Arts and Science from the School of Advanced Military Studies, and a master’s in National Security Strategy from the National War College. In 2019, he earned a Doctor of Business Administration from Rollins College, where he defended a mixed-method study for his dissertation on leadership development in healthcare.

His military decorations include three Distinguished Service Medals, five Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal for Valor, the Combat Action Badge, and the Parachutist Badge, along with numerous foreign awards from Germany, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. He has also received leadership honors from organizations including the NFL, the Eisenhower Academy of Sports, the Boy Scouts of America, Indiana University, and the City of Orlando.

Mark is married to his wife Sue, his best friend and partner of over 50 years. They live in Orlando, Florida, and are the proud parents of two sons, grandparents to five grandsons, and step-grandparents to two granddaughters.