A man who claimed this week that he flew the helicopter carrying NBC News’ Brian Williams into Iraq during the 2003 invasion has recanted his story, saying in a statement Friday that he’s now not sure he remembers whether they came under fire that night.
Former Chief Warrant Officer Rich Krell originally told CNN that the Chinook he supposedly piloted had come under small arms fire as they flew into the Iraqi desert, a claim that appeared to clear up at least parts of Williams’ inaccurate tale of having been aboard a helicopter that was brought down by rocket fire.
But Krell has now backed off his claim, telling CNN early Friday: “The information I gave you was true based on my memories, but at this point I am questioning my memories that I may have forgotten or left something out.”
Krell first contacted CNN’s Brian Stelter via Twitter, asking that the cable news network contact him for further information regarding the events of 2003.
The retired Army veteran originally told CNN: “Yeah, [Williams] messed up some things and said some things he shouldn’t have. I [first] heard it a few years ago. … Actually one of my flight engineers said, ‘Did you hear him say that? Wasn’t he on our bird?’ ” he said.
Krell initially told CNN he flew the helicopter that carried Williams and company, that the aircraft or some equipment it was hauling came under small arms fire (in keeping with Williams’ original story) but that it had not been forced down (which Williams has now recanted). He told CNN it’s understandable that the NBC News anchor had “misremembered” the events of 12 years ago.
But all that changed Friday morning as Krell decided to disown his own story.
“For the past 12 years, I have been trying to forget everything that happened in Iraq and Afghanistan; now that I let it back, the nightmares come back with it, so I want to forget again,” he said. “The men in that article deserve respect. Please understand.”
Krell’s admission that he himself may now be “misremembering” the events of 2003 comes just hours after former U.S. Army warrant officer Chris Simeone came forward Thursday evening to claim that he was the pilot of the chopper carrying Williams and other NBC News employees.
Simone in an article published by Page Six contradicted every single detail of Krell’s original interview with CNN.
“I was the pilot in command of the flight that carried Brian Williams into Iraq in March 2003,” he wrote. “After landing, we learned that the parked aircraft had received small-arms fire and had been hit with an RPG on their mission. Brian Williams and crew recorded footage of this parked aircraft. The ‘Big Windy’ aircraft was not part of our unit. It was not part of our flight. We were not flying ‘behind’ them. Our missions were completely separate.”
“Brian Williams began to tell the story, from 2003, that the lead aircraft in our flight had received this ground fire. This was not true. Brian Williams then began to give account that the aircraft he was traveling on received this ground fire. This is not true,” he added. “Brian Williams reported on the David Letterman show that the ‘captain’ of his aircraft had received a Purple Heart for a wound to the ear. I was the pilot in command of the aircraft carrying Brian Williams. I do not have a Purple Heart, and my ears are just fine.”
Simeone is joined by two other former servicemen, Allan Kelly and Joseph Miller, who said separately that Krell did not, in fact, pilot the helicopter that carried Williams.
Simeone and Kelly both maintain that there were only two helicopters in their group, not three as Krell claimed and not four as Williams claimed. Krell was piloting the first helicopter, which wasn’t carrying NBC News personnel, Simeone and Kelly said.
Simeone, Kelly and Miller were together on the second Chinook that carried Williams and his NBC News colleagues. The three servicemen maintained in statements to separate news groups that neither the first nor the second Chinook came under fire that day in Iraq.
Soon after Page Six published Simeone’s account of events, the Washington Examiner contacted Krell on Twitter for further clarification.
Krell did not respond to request for comment and instead deleted his Twitter account.
CNN’s Brian Stetler said Friday morning after he reported on the collapse of Krell’s story: “In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t shared the story at all.”
Stars and Stripes, which first reported Wednesday that Williams admitted that his story of wartime valor was bogus, also reported in 2003 on the events the NBC News anchor has long referenced.
In an article titled “Giebelstadt-based Chinook crew escapes Iraqi attack,” there is no mention of Brian Williams, NBC News employees or Krell. The 2003 article does, however, feature a photo of Sgt. Lance Reynolds, who was one of the first to push back on Williams’ latest iteration last week of his harrowing tale of being shot down 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 last Friday during a tribute to a now-retired soldier who provided ground security for the choppers that night.
“Our traveling NBC News team was rescued, surrounded and kept alive by an armor mechanized platoon from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry,” Williams added.
Reynolds, who featured prominently in the 2003 Stars and Stripes report on the attack, responded over the weekend to Williams’ latest iteration of the story, writing 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.”
“Then I remember you guys taking back off in a different flight of Chinooks from another unit and heading to Kuwait to report your ‘war story’ to the Nightly News. The whole time we were still stuck in Iraq trying to repair the aircraft and pulling our own Security,” he added.
After Reynolds and others came forward to dispute Williams’ oft-repeated story, the longtime NBC News anchor offered an explanation, telling viewers Wednesday evening that he merely “bungled” the details of what happened when he and other U.S. airmen flew into Iraq 12 years ago.
But his explanation, and the fact that he has been telling variations of this story for the past 12 years, doesn’t appear to have won him any leniency, especially from enraged veterans advocacy groups.
“As an organization of wartime veterans, The American Legion finds his behavior reprehensible, and we hope that Mr. Williams will redeem himself,” national commander Michael Helm said Thursday in a statement.
For now, it’s uncertain whether NBC News will reprimand or discipline Williams for what now appears to be a wholly fabricated story
