NY Air National Guard member dies snowboarding at American Dream Mall

A Long Island man who served in the Air National Guard died in a fall while snowboarding on an indoor slope at New Jersey’s American Dream Mall, his family and friends said.

Peter Mathews, 24, who had served for the last two years in the Maryland Air National Guard, tumbled backward and hit his head last Thursday while riding the megamall’s Big Snow American Dream, his sister, Sarah Mathews, told Newsday.

The sister, a registered nurse, tried to save Mathews on the slopes — but he died later that day after being rushed to Hackensack University Medical Center, the report said.

He will be buried next Monday at Calverton National Cemetery in Riverhead, Suffolk County.

Mathews was awarded the Air Force Achievement Medal earlier this year for an exercise in which he “mobilized with his squadron and A-10C Thunderbolt II aircraft from the 104th Fighter Squadron to support two US Army Europe-led exercises in Eastern Europe,” according to a post from the Maryland Air Force base where he was assigned.

“Peter was genuinely an amazing person, and his smile lit up the room. If you had a chance to talk to him, you knew instantly he had a remarkable future and was destined for greatness,” said US Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Jeffrey Golabiewski, 175th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron senior enlisted leader.

His dad told Newsday that Matthews wanted to be a commercial pilot after serving.