WASHINGTON -- Lt. Col. Matthew Blake, an AFOSI reservist currently serving as the 7th Field Investigations Squadron commander, volunteered at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., Sept. 11, where he was invited to attend a ceremony and read a portion of the names of law enforcement officers permanently inscribed on the memorial wall who died as a result of the terrorist attacks 23 years ago - an event close to home for the OSI leader.
“Reading each name aloud brought their sacrifice into focus and reminds us of all the bravery they displayed that day,” he said. “The ceremony was a fitting tribute to the collective promise we made to never forget those who gave everything in service to others.”
For Blake, the event was part of his ongoing efforts to do whatever he can to honor the lives lost, and it caused him to reflect on how that day forever changed his career.
“The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, impacted my career focus from that day forward,” he said.
As a native New Yorker with roots dating back four generations, Blake always aspired to a career in law enforcement or military service, he said, something he has lived for the last three decades.
However, Blake downplays his role in the subsequent response to 9/11 - pointing out the larger team of thousands of law enforcement officers who did the very same job as he did - and said the ‘real heroes’ were the first responders and civilians who ran toward danger that morning.
To set the stage: In 2001, at an early point in his civilian federal law enforcement career, Blake was part of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in NYC located at Federal Plaza, just blocks from the World Trade Center.
However, on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Blake was on a short temporary duty assignment at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, related to his collateral duty as a firearms instructor, hundreds of miles from the Big Apple.
It started like any typical morning at FLETC, he said. He was training at the firing range when his beeper sounded with the chilling text message of a breaking news alert: ‘A plane has hit the World Trade Center.’
Blake initially assumed it was an accident involving a small private aircraft, he said, but another message soon followed: “A second plane has collided with the other World Trade Center tower.”
He then immediately realized it was a coordinated attack. Once he was finally able to return home, his responsibilities with the JTTF quickly took shape.
As a task force officer, Blake was deputized as a Special Deputy U.S. Marshal, giving him enhanced federal law enforcement authorities while assisting with leads and participating in counterterrorism investigations in the days following the attacks.
“The JTTF section I was ultimately assigned to was the threats and reactions squad,” Blake said, “which had a unique mission in that we were charged with being the first federal law enforcement response to actual or suspected terrorism threats and events in the areas of New York City and Long Island.”
“Subsequent to 9/11, our JTTF teams worked around the clock for months, running investigative leads,” he said. “I remember driving by and near Ground Zero and seeing where the attack had taken place.”
As the days and weeks passed, makeshift memorials were built and they were filled with coins, patches, cards – all with a unified message: Never forget.
For Blake, the impact of 9/11 extended beyond his professional duties. From that day on, he committed himself to honoring the lives lost in whatever small way he could -- a commitment reflected not only in his participation in memorials and ceremonies - but also in deployments, as well as in career vectors such as when in his civilian capacity, he served from 2017-2021 as the senior DoD member of the FBI’s National JTTF Executive Board where he represented the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Blake remained on the NYC JTTF through 2003, when he deployed to Baghdad with OSI during the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“For me, it was always about trying to figure out where I could be the most helpful,” he said.
His commitment to national security later led to his most recent deployment to East Africa in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2023.
During that deployment, Blake was asked by leadership to deliver a keynote speech on the 22nd anniversary of 9/11 at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti.
“As I began pulling my remarks together for that event at Camp Lemmonier, it dawned on me that I was on that deployment to some degree because of the commitment I made decades before, in vowing to do whatever small part I could in never letting others forget," He said. "And to hopefully make some modest contribution to our national security and defense.”
During that speech, Blake also reflected on the resilience shown at Ground Zero.
“Every person there remembers the sights, sounds, and smells, but they also remember the resilience of fellow New Yorkers, Americans, and our allies from all over the world in the weeks and months to come,” he said.
In all, 71 NYPD officers, 343 NYC firefighters, 125 Pentagon officials and military members, and nearly 3,000 civilians lost their lives that day. Many others lost their lives subsequent to that day from health issues directly related to the attacks.
“It is very much my honor to continue serving with our law enforcement and military communities in any way I can as we do our small part toward the goal of someday eradicating the concept of terrorism from our vocabulary,” he said.
“But make no mistake, until that happens, we will always stand ready to defend our way of life—and we will not forget.”