NBC News’ Brian Williams apologized Wednesday for claiming for more than a decade that he was aboard a helicopter downed by rocket fire during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a stunning admission that comes nearly 12 years after the network first claimed in a headline: “Target Iraq: Helicopter NBC’s Brian Williams Was Riding In Comes Under Fire.”
Williams said Wednesday in an interview with Stars and Stripes that he may have “misremembered” events.
He also apologized on Facebook for the now-debunked story.
Williams’ apology comes after NBC News aired a tribute last Friday to a retired soldier who provided security for the downed choppers that night in Iraq.
“The story actually started with a terrible moment a dozen years back during the invasion of Iraq when the helicopter we were traveling in was forced down after being hit by an RPG,” Williams said during NBC News’ coverage of the tribute to the retired soldier. “Our traveling NBC News team was rescued, surrounded and kept alive by an armor mechanized platoon from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry.”
Following Friday’s broadcast, and following Williams’ latest iteration of his oft-repeated story, Lance Reynolds, who was a flight engineer during the U.S. invasion of Iraq, responded on Facebook: “Sorry dude, I don’t remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened.”
Elsewhere, members of 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook told Stars and Stripes that Williams was nowhere near the fighting that night in 2003. In fact, they said, his chopper was about one hour behind the chopper that was actually forced down by enemy rocket and small arms fire.
In remarks to Stars and Stripes, Williams admitted to “misremembering” events, but maintains that he did not mean to make the mistake.
“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams said. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”
Stars and Stripes reported Williams and his crew arrived safely and was never in any actual danger.
“[W]e never came under direct enemy fire to the aircraft,” flight engineer Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Miller told Stars and Stripes Wednesday.
Williams posted a longer apology on Facebook, directly addressing the soldiers who actually took fire that night in Iraq:
The damaged Chinook’s door gunner, Mike O’Keefe, told Stars and Stripes that he has long been bothered by Williams’ fabricated story.
“Over the years it faded,” he said, “and then to see it last week it was — I can’t believe he is still telling this false narrative.”
Reynolds added: “It was something personal for us that was kind of life-changing for me. I’ve know how lucky I was to survive it. It felt like a personal experience that someone else wanted to participate in and didn’t deserve to participate in.”
When asked if Williams would address the issue on air, an NBC News spokeswoman referred the Washington Examiner to his Facebook apology.
