For years, NBC’s revered Brian Williams has told the dramatic story of the time was on a helicopter when it was hit by an RPG, forced down, and rescued by a military platoon. Except it turns out he was actually on a helicopter miles behind the rescued chopper–and has only owned up to it 12 years later, after annoyed soldiers began calling him out on Facebook.
Williams’ story began to unravel when NBC aired a tribute to the soldiers who supposedly “rescued” him—only to have one of the soldiers from that helicopter comment on NBC’s Facebook page, “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.”
Soon several other soldiers chimed in on the thread, with at least one claiming he had been “calling [Williams] out on this for a long time with no response.”
Williams then personally replied on Facebook, admitting, “You are absolutely right and I was wrong. In fact, I spent much of the weekend thinking I’d gone crazy… 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 later made an on-air apology for the story, calling it “a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran”:
The original commenter, Lance Reynolds, still disputes even Williams’ correction, however, saying, “It wasn’t even the chopper behind him. We were on a flight about an hour in front of them.”
Reynold told Stars and Stripes, “It felt like a personal experience that someone else wanted to participate in and didn’t deserve to participate in.”
UPDATE: Thanks to the internet, we already have a #BrianWilliamsMisremembers hashtag goin’ strong:
“So I told #leftshark ‘Don’t worry about the choreography, just go with it'” #BrianWilliamsMisremembers pic.twitter.com/NRM9GUYTPR
— Dave Murray (@Michigandmurray) February 5, 2015
“That one live shot I did from the moon” #BrianWilliamsMemories pic.twitter.com/FbND6jAqc7
— Greg Dutra (@DutraWeather) February 5, 2015
