Colonel Jim Wall, CD was born in Kingston, Ontario and joined the Canadian Military Engineers 1983. He has held command and staff appointments in 1 and 2 Combat Engineer Regiments at the troop, squadron and regimental level. Col Wall began his regimental duty with 2 CER from 1985 to 1988 commanding 2 Troop (Para), and 25 Support and Parachute Squadron.
During the period 1988 -1991, Col Wall served with the Special Service Force Headquarters Petawawa as G3 Training. He was subsequently posted to 1 CER Chilliwack as DCO in 1991, joining the unit in Kuwait on peacekeeping duty (UNIKOM) and later serving in Croatia with 1 CER as part of UNPROFOR in 1992/93. On completion of second language training, Col Wall was transferred to Land Force Atlantic Area Headquarters in Halifax where he served as SO2 Infrastructure Requirements and worked on Reserve Restructure until 1996.
From 1996 to 1999, Col Wall returned to 2 CER to assume the duties of DCO. This tour included two domestic operations and a United Nations tour on OP NOBLE as the Senior Technical Advisor to the Mine Action Centre in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Col Wall was the Commanding Officer of 1 CER from 2001 to 2003 during which time the unit contributed Sappers to Op APOLLO in Afghanistan, Op PALLADIUM ROTOs 11 and 12 in Bosnia and conducted Op Grizzly in support of the G8 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.
Following unit command, Col Wall served as the Deputy Director Army Training at LFDTS HQ Kingston from 2003-05 and later as a member of the Directing Staff, Dean of Studies and the Deputy Commandant of the Canadian Land Force Command and Staff College from 2005-08.
Col Wall was promoted to his current rank in June 2008 and subsequently assumed the duties of Commander Operational Support Engineer Group at CANOSCOM HQ and was appointed CME Branch Advisor.