James Irsley Poynter (December 1, 1916 – November 4, 1950) was a United States Marine Corps sergeant who served in World War II and the Korean War where he was killed in action. He was posthumously awarded the United States' highest military decoration for valor — the Medal of Honor — for his actions as a platoon squad leader on November 4, 1950, in which he singlehandedly charged and destroyed three enemy machine gun positions in North Korea at the cost of his life while a member of the 1st Marine Division. The Hall of Valor Project
