NBC’s Brian Williams Recants Iraq War Story

Brian Williams is backtracking on an often repeated story about him dodging danger while covering the Iraq invasion in 2003.

The "NBC Nightly News" anchor came clean in a story published Wednesday in the military newspaper "Stars & Stripes" saying he "misremembered" the details of the story and apologized for repeating it. That story, which Williams apparently re-told as recently as last week, had Williams on board a helicopter that was fired upon and forced down.

Williams now says he was not on board the chopper when it was hit and feels terrible about making the mistake. His admission came after "Stars & Stripes" contacted crew members of the downed helicopter who in turn told the paper that Williams had arrived on another, undamaged helicopter about an hour after gunfire took them down.

Williams says he doesn't know what confused him to cause him to mistake one chopper with another, adding that he "would not have chosen to make this mistake." He has since written an apology to the soldiers.

The news vet shared his "misremembered" story as recently as last Friday during a broadcast of the New York Rangers game at which a retired soldier was being honored. (Metro Networks Inc.)