Last Friday, while honoring a veteran on “NBC Nightly News,” Williams recounted how his helicopter was “forced down after being hit by an RPG.”
He apologized on Wednesday’s “NBC Nightly News” for that specific error — “I made a mistake,” he said — but he did not address his broader series of misstatements in the past.
Williams’ apology came after soldiers challenged his account on Facebook and the military newspaper Stars and Stripes began investigating. Stars and Stripes interviewed several crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment’s helicopter that actually was struck by the RPG, and they said “the NBC anchor was nowhere near that aircraft or two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire.”
Stars and Stripes reported Wednesday that “Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing, the crew members said.”
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Correspondents and producers with war zone experience seemed particularly perturbed.
“I don’t know how you manage to begin to clean up from this, or if you even can,” said one longtime employee. “He’s in for a hell of a ride.”
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