Mohawk Marine sees ice palace from Fallujah

Mohawk Marine sees ice palace from Fallujah
By NATHAN BROWN, Enterprise Staff Writer

SARANAC LAKE - Matthew Hibbard is a gunnery sergeant currently deployed in Fallujah, Iraq. "Gunny," as his fellow Marines call him, has been in the Marine Corps for 17 years and has never been to the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, but he saw the ice palace on a webcam Friday, with a message of love and support from his family to go along with it.

Hibbard's sister, Gina French and her husband, Jeff, both of Mohawk, are in Saranac Lake for Winter Carnival, and their daughter, Courtney Petkovsek, was recently accepted into the hospitality program at Paul Smith's College.

Jeff French said they have been to Winter Carnival a few times before, but not in the past six or seven years. This year, he saw the webcam on the Winter Carnival Web site, and the Frenches thought it would be nice if Hibbard could see them in front of the ice palace.

Hibbard is allowed to access non-military Web sites at 6 p.m. in Iraq, or 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time - which didn't give them much time to find a Marine Corps flag to pose with in the picture. Fortunately, they were able to borrow one from Major Plowshares.

"It was very nice of Major Plowshares to let us borrow the flag," Gina said.

"One of our normal stops up here is Major Plowshares," Jeff said. "They've always been very nice to us, as is everyone else in town."

Hibbard will return to the U.S. in March.

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Contact Nathan Brown at (518) 891-2600 ext. 26 or nbrown@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.

Ellie