NBC News anchor Brian Williams who has come under fire for his concocted version of the Iraq story has apologized.
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, Williams accepted that the story he had narrated on being under fire during his coverage of the Iraq invasion in 2003 was untrue.
During the coverage of a tribute story on Tim Terpak - an army officer befriended by Williams when the former was assigned the protection of the NBC crew - Williams claimed at the New York Rangers hockey game that he was aboard the U.S. Air Force helicopter which was struck by rockers and grounded during the Iraq invasion.
However, under the video of the tribute on NBC Nightly News' official Facebook page, Flight Engineer Lance Reynolds (a crew member on the Chinook) commented that he did not recollect Williams being on the aircraft.
Williams apologized to Reynolds for the error and admitted that he was "indeed on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG in the tail housing just above the ramp." Reynolds also said that he did not wish to fictionalize the incident and attributed the misrepresentation to "fog of memory over 12 years."
55-year-old Williams' admission came post a story in the publication Stars & Stripes pointed out the inconsistencies.
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, Williams admitted on NBC Nightly News that he was on board a "following aircraft" and not the Chinook, which came under hostile fire in Kuwait in March 2003.
The former White House correspondent read out a 50-second statement to clear the air and apologized for the discrepancy.
"After a groundfire incident in the desert during the Iraq war invasion, I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago. It did not take long to hear from some brave men and women in the air crews who were also in that desert. I want to apologize. I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by [rocket-propelled grenade] fire. I was instead in a following aircraft. . . . This was a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran and, by extension, our brave military men and women, veterans everywhere, those who have served while I did not," apologized Williams.
NBC has not revealed if Williams will face disciplinary action for propagating an untrue story.
