Army Capt. Mathew Holladay’s action during the war in Iraq last year earned him a Bronze Star, the Army announced Tuesday.

Holladay, formerly of Lawrence, is a member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade that launched the largest airborne assault since World War II during Operation Northern Delay at Bashir Airfield, in Iraq.

The paratroopers established the northernmost boundary for coalition troops and created an area where additional troops and supplies could be brought in. It also pinned down six divisions of Iraqi troops, keeping them from entering battles closer to Baghdad, the Army said.

Holladay is the son of former Lawrence residents Joe and Roi Holladay, now living in Chapel Hill, N.C. Joe Holladay was an assistant basketball coach under Roy Williams at Kansas University. Holladay left KU to continue coaching under Williams. The Holladays were said to be on vacation and couldn’t be reached at their Chapel Hill home.

But in interviews last year the Holladays said they thought they had seen their son on CNN as he was jumping out of an airplane.

“This is exactly what I envisioned: Him cleaning up an airport for bringing in heavy machinery,” Roi Holladay said last year.

The Army wasn’t specific about what Mathew Holladay did to earn the Bronze Star. It did say it awarded the medal to someone who “has performed a heroic act, meritorious achievement or distinguished service during armed conflict or ground combat while engaged against an armed enemy of the United States.”

In addition to seizing the Bashir Airfield, the 173rd Brigade also seized several other airfields, the city of Kirkuk, oil fields, terrorist funds worth millions of dinars and arrested hundreds of terrorists and Saddam Hussein loyalists.

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