The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Sergeant James J. Nicholl (MCSN: 275623), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity as Section Leader of a Machine Gun Platoon in Company D, First Battalion, Seventh Marines, FIRST Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces in the vicinity of Hill 150, Cape Gloucester, Western New Britain on 6 January 1944. When a carrier returned to inform the command post that a stretcher party of six carriers and an injured Marine were ambushed and all the carriers wounded, Sergeant Nicholl voluntarily organized and led four Marines and a hospital corpsman to the scene of the ambush and, calm and efficient in the face of enemy fire, personally directed the removal of the wounded. The heroic initiative and fearless conduct displayed by Sergeant Nicholl in the rescue of seven companions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.