NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is admitting that he lied when he claimed to have been on board a helicopter that was shot down by enemy gunfire while reporting on the Iraq War back in 2003.

As it turns out, the story is one based in truth, but expounded by exaggeration.  In an interview with Start & Stripes, a military-themed newspaper, Williams admitted that he was in fact on a different transport helicopter during the incident – one that never took on fire and landed safely less than an hour later.

“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams said in the interview.  “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”

Yet as Stars & Stripes was quick to point out, Williams has recounted the lie more than once over the course of the last 12 years, and as early as this month.

Williams again addressed the controversy on NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams,” claiming that he “made a mistake in recalling the events in 12 years ago” and that it “did not take long to hear from the brave men and women and their crews.”

The Williams’ revelation comes on the back of NBC News having to retract claims made during breaking news earlier this month, when Chief Global Corresponded Bill Neely reported with confidence that he terror suspects in France’s Charlie Hebdo massacre were dead or in custody – which proved not to be true.