NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams said Wednesday he made a “mistake” when he lied about being on a helicopter that was hit and forced down by an RPG attack in Iraq during the 2003 invasion.
During Nightly News on Wednesday, Williams issued the apology. “I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago. It did not take long to hear from the brave men and women in the air crews,” he said, adding that he was “in a following aircraft”--not the aircraft that was hit.
But the longtime anchor first issued an apology to Stars and Stripes, a military publication, about the gaffe.
“Because I have no desire to fictionalize my experience (we all saw it happened the first time) and no need to dramatize events as they actually happened, I think the constant viewing of the video showing us inspecting the impact area — and the fog of memory over 12 years — made me conflate the two, and I apologize,” he said.
Added the NBC anchor: “I certainly remember the armored mech platoon, meeting Capt. Eric Nye and of course Tim Terpak. Shortly after they arrived, so did the Orange Crush sandstorm, making virtually all outdoor functions impossible. I honestly don’t remember which of the three choppers Gen. Downing and I slept in, but we spent two nights on the stowable web bench seats in one of the three birds.
