This story was originally published in The Good Life magazine’s July-August 2026 issue.
Bosnia. Egypt. Iraq. Fargo. Jim Graalum served across the globe as a U.S. Army officer, but that service didn’t end when he retired his uniform. From the Fargo VFW to the Honor Guard, he continues to keep a busy schedule supporting his fellow veterans.
It’s a life of service that began in 1980, when he joined the North Dakota Army National Guard. Less than a year later, he was commissioned as an officer via ROTC. His service brought him to Bosnia on a peace-keeping mission with the Minnesota National Guard, to Egypt for a training mission and then to Iraq as a member of the U.S. Army Reserve. It’s the latter experience that best highlights his military service for him.
DEPLOYING TO IRAQ
Graalum deployed in 2007 for a year as a National Police Transition Team leader. He served under the 2nd Brigade Combat Team in Al Khadraa under Lt. Col. Kuehl, land commander for the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment.
When he flew from Tadji, Iraq, to Baghdad’s Grand Festivities Square, he landed around 3 a.m. on a twin-propeller Chinook at a time when helicopters were increasingly being shot down by hostile fire. Despite the “unnerving” situation, he arrived safely and quickly got to work.
“We tried to teach the Iraqi Shurtas basic police tactics, searching vehicles, searching individuals, detaining individuals, first aid, and movement to contact,” Graalum said of his role.
An already challenging task became more complicated when he learned many of the Shurtas were unable to read or write.
Teaching and training the Iraqi National Police evolved into accompanying them, conducting knock-and-search missions, searching homes for weapons caches, and setting up traffic check points to search vehicles looking for illegal weapons.
“We would walk 10 blocks, 11 blocks, and knock on doors looking for weapons caches,” he said. “Sometimes we’d find one, sometimes we’d knock and search the house and come out empty-handed. A lot of times locals would come out with chai and cookies, and we’d be on the street corner drinking chai … When you’re in their country and working with them, it’s what you do.”
It wasn’t all tea and cookies, though. On the way from Baghdad International Airport to Al Khadraa, they repeatedly passed burned-out vehicles and road craters – evidence of IED strikes. IEDs – improvised explosive devices – were always a risk. Graalum’s convoy got hit several times, and his own vehicle was disabled after one IED strike, but, thankfully, nobody was injured.
Fighting a war also entails winning hearts and minds of the locals, and Graalum approached that part of his role with vigor, as well. After seeing the conditions the Iraqi National Police lived in, he worked with others to collect mattresses for them and bring them cases of water. With the help of shipments from his mom, Graalum and his team also handed out Beanie Babies and candy to children they encountered during their patrols.
“That was always nice to see the kids’ reactions when they received a Beanie Baby or a bag of candy,” he said.
PEACEKEEPING IN BOSNIA
Just a few years before deploying to Iraq, Graalum spent time on a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia with the Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Infantry Division Joint Military Affairs.
After a month and a half at the Multinational Brigade North, he moved to NATO Headquarters Camp Butmir where he worked in the G3 section – brigade level operations.
“We had a mission to destroy unsafe ammunition. So, I was working with the Dutch, who had the EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) teams in Bosnia. They would travel across the country, checking ammunition storage sites for unsafe ammunition and collecting it. The unsafe ammunition would then be transported to MNB North, where it would be blown at the range, and when the ammunition was blown, it was one helluva blast,” he said.
They would detonate a semi-truckload worth of ammunition a couple of times each week.
Besides the Dutch, he worked with Germans, English, Irish, Canadians, Italians, and Spaniards, all of whom spoke English, which made for an interesting year of working with other nationalities.
“It was really an enjoyable mission to work with different nationalities,” he said.
SERVING ON THE HOMEFRONT
After retiring as a lieutenant colonel, Graalum looked for ways to continue to serve. In 2021, he heard Jason Hicks, the United Patriotic Bodies commander, present a plan to build a building for the Honor Guard at the Fargo National Cemetery. Graalum immediately approached him and offered to help in any way he could. He soon found himself immersed in fundraising along with serving on the Honor Guard, which provides military honors at veterans’ funerals.
It was a cobbled-together operation in those days as they were getting started.
“We tried to get our stuff together, determine what we wanted to do, and come up with a PowerPoint presentation, which was very rough. We contacted Sen. Hoeven and Sen. Cramer’s offices. We made our first two cold calls to Petro Serve and the Hector Foundation. For our first presentation, we forgot to bring the PowerPoint.”
The cold calls, however, brought results, and the senators provided support. Now, the Honor Guard is preparing to break ground on the new building later this summer.
“I can’t wait for them to start the construction of the building,” Graalum said. “It will be a huge change for the cemetery and the families that are interring their loved ones at the Fargo National Cemetery.”
As significant as the work has been as a volunteer with the Honor Guard, that’s not all Graalum has on his retirement schedule.
In April, he was elected commander of Fargo VFW Post 762. Like all veterans’ organizations, it’s been a struggle to increase membership, but Graalum has numerous ideas he’s anxious to implement for the post. Even though his wife, who was uncertain about Graalum’s ability to dedicate even more time to his causes, now shares ideas on how to help the post grow and flourish.
“Right now, I’m the new commander, and hopefully we can do things we haven’t done before. On the last three Military Appreciation Days, the post offered free food to both military personnel and the public. We’ve offered hot dogs, beans, chips, potato salad, and chicken salad, so we’d like to get the kitchen up and running again, but it’s a slow process.”
If history is any indication, however, he will be successful there, too. It’s all part of living a good life, which to Graalum means “feeling happy where I am, being mentally sound, and enjoying life.” The good life includes volunteering for everything from “conducting the final military honors at the Fargo National Cemetery, volunteering at the Fargo VA Medical Center as an honor escort for a deceased veteran, or bringing my dog, Charlie, up to visit veterans in the Community Living Center” at the VA. He also finds satisfaction volunteering with Turtle Mountain Rescue and fostering puppies.
Graalum prioritizes time with friends and family, whether at a barbecue, on vacation, or tailgating at NDSU football games.
“The best is the last: still having family dinners on Sundays, sitting around the dining room table after dinner, sometimes playing card games, or sitting around the fire pit, enjoying the warmth of the fire, and relaxing with family.”
