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Parkersburg Police chief recalls Sept. 11 as a high school senior

By Evan Bevins 4 min read

PARKERSBURG - Matthew Board knew he was going into law enforcement long before Sept. 11, 2001, but being the son of a police officer and a federal government employee informed how he experienced that day.

"I had just finished, actually, my civics class," recalled Board, who was appointed Parkersburg Police chief in 2022, following in the footsteps of his father, Gerald Board.

He was walking between buildings at Parkersburg South High School when classmate Brett Dowler approached him "and said, ‘They just flew a plane into the World Trade Center.’"

Dowler is the son of a Parkersburg firefighter and is a member of the department himself.

"We both followed in our dads’ footsteps," Board said.

In his next class, they turned on the television just in time to see the second plane hit the south tower. At that point, it was clear the first strike was not an accident.

"In my lifetime, we’d never been through anything like that," Board said.

That second block class was spent watching coverage of the unfolding events. Laughter and joking are commonplace in high school classrooms, even at inappropriate times, Board said, but it was quiet that day.

As news came in about a third plane striking the Pentagon and a fourth crashing in a field in Pennsylvania, Board began thinking about his mother, Rita, who worked for the Internal Revenue Service in the federal building on Juliana Street in downtown Parkersburg.

"It became apparent that obviously it was a terror attack and it was an attack on the government," he said. "What’s the next target?"

With the benefit of hindsight, Board acknowledged there was almost no chance a federal office in Parkersburg was in danger that day. But then, he asked to go to the bathroom and instead snuck out to his car where he had his cell phone. He called his mother, found out she was OK and the office was closing early.

As the son of a police officer, Board kept an eye on the first responders rushing to the scene. When the south tower collapsed, he knew police officers and firefighters were inside trying to help the wounded and evacuate the people inside.

"I never even dreamed that the towers would collapse," Board said.

The day did not alter Board’s goal of becoming a police officer, but it did change the way he - and domestic law enforcement everywhere - looked at the job.

"I guess my mind was more attuned to home-grown threats," he said. Someone attacking us from outside the country "was a completely different thought process."

Today, local departments like Parkersburg’s have connections to counter-terrorism and homeland security offices, share intelligence and network more with others to prevent future incidents.

In Board’s first year as chief, the department sent two officers to training in Memphis to become instructors for active shooter response, another possibility that seemed unusual more than 25 years ago. They have since trained people in their department and others.

"All of our people have been through multiple, multiple, multiple scenarios," he said.

The goal, whether with an active shooter or a terror attack, is to have officers ready for the unthinkable so they are not experiencing emotions and considering scenarios for the first time as an incident unfolds.

While Board chose his career path years prior, he knows Sept. 11 inspired others to become police officers, firefighters and paramedics or to join the military. That’s one of the unintended consequences of the attackers’ actions, he said.

"The goal of the enemy of that day was to cause fear, was to cause terror ... to divide and cause chaos. And they did, for a minute," Board said. "I can’t remember a time that the country came together any more.

"The enemy did not factor one thing in and that’s the American resolve."

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.

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