WASHINGTON — Apologies by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams Wednesday for his false claim of being on a helicopter forced down by Iraqi rocket fire in 2003 left out key details and made misleading claims about his proximity to the incident, according to soldiers who were there at the time.
Williams admitted on air that he was not on the Chinook that was struck by enemy fire, saying he was “instead on a following aircraft” and writing a Facebook apology to soldiers saying “I was indeed on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG.” But Army flight crews told Stars and Stripes the NBC anchor was actually flying with a different helicopter company altogether — in a different direction, and linked to the attacked unit by radio only.
The wording appeared to be another example of the anchor muddling the facts or providing misleading details of the incident that he covered in the opening days of the Iraq invasion. Since the 2003 incident, he has written that he “came under fire” and implied that his Chinook was forced down due to an attack, while soldiers said it was landed amid deteriorating weather conditions during a sandstorm.
“I think it is misleading” for Williams to say his aircraft was following behind the Chinook hit by two rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, said David Luke, a retired soldier from Texas who was a flight engineer with a company of the helicopters under the 159th Aviation Regiment, which was known as Hercules and based out of Savannah, Ga.
The company carrying NBC and the company that was attacked typically flew sorties one hour apart to supply forward positions as the U.S. pushed toward Baghdad, though they happened to pass in the air before the incident, he said.
Luke said his formation of three Chinooks was carrying Williams and his NBC crew back toward Kuwait when they spotted a white Iraqi pickup truck, which stopped to watch the aircraft. They flew past quickly and continued on.
Soon after, Luke’s formation passed another company of Chinooks based out of Germany known as Big Windy heading in the opposite direction toward Baghdad, he said.
Luke’s Hercules Chinooks, carrying Williams and the NBC crew, soon heard over the radio that the Big Windy company they had passed came under fire from the pickup truck, he said.
Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Miller, who was a flight engineer on the Chinook carrying NBC, said the TV news crew placed a microphone in one of the helicopter’s headsets and later broadcast clips of the radio reports from the Chinook company that was attacked.
Luke’s unit then ran into an approaching sandstorm that forced them to change course and return north in an attempt to find a safe haven at the forward operating base Rams, a Spartan and hastily set-up post to the south of Baghdad, Luke said.
The unit found the rocket-damaged Chinook parked at an airstrip just outside Rams. Crew members on that aircraft said Williams came off his helicopter and approached them to ask about the attack.
The damaged Chinook had been hit by two rockets and small-arms fire, including rounds that passed through the cockpit and ricocheted inside the cabin, giving one soldier a cheek wound.
Williams angered crew members last week when he claimed he had been aboard the attacked Chinook during NBC’s coverage of a public tribute for a retired soldier that had provided ground security for the parked helicopters. The anchor had taken the newly retired command sergeant major to a Rangers hockey game at Madison Square Garden in New York.
In an interview with Stars and Stripes, Williams said he had misremembered the events and was sorry.
He issued an apology to the Chinook soldiers on Facebook, writing that “I was indeed on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG in the tail housing just above the ramp.”
Williams also corrected his earlier report during the Nightly News.
“I was instead in a following aircraft. We all landed after the ground-fire incident and spent two harrowing nights in a sandstorm in the Iraq desert,” he said.
The apology was met with some cynicism from those who were there.
“I have a feeling that he didn’t have a choice [but to apologize],” Luke said. “I don’t think it would ever of happened [otherwise]. He would have told that war story until he was on his dying bed.”
Others were glad Williams apologized.
When reached Thursday, Mike O’Keeffe, who was the door gunner on the Chinook hit by RPGs, said he was more or less satisfied with the apology and no longer wanted to press the issue by making public comments.
“I understand your interest and very much appreciate you getting the truth out there, but from my perspective, Mr. Williams has been outed and has enough to deal with,” O’Keeffe wrote in a message to Stars and Stripes. “Guess I just don’t want to kick the guy when he is down. Though he wordsmithed his apology to downplay what he did, he did recant and I am satisfied.”
tritten.travis@stripes.com
Twitter: @Travis_Tritten
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