I can’t tell you how often I misremember whether it was the helicopter in front of me that got hit with a rocket or the one I was riding in.
“I just kept rubbing the sticks together, faster, faster... it began to smoke... then BOOM. Flame happened. The other trogdolytes were sore amazed.”
Did he really not think any one of those folks he was there with would turn up to call him on it?
I could see him thinking he'd get away with faking it if he was some no-name reporter from the "Podunk Patch Gazette" that no one knows of, but he's a national figure on a national network, his face on the screen every night.
Makes no sense at all.
I’d like to know two things:
1. Did Stars and Stripes tell him to voluntarily confess, otherwise they would run a story?
2. Did he actually think that no one would ever question his tale?
During my military training, I had to crawl through a live-fire exercise: First time, no bullets, in daylight just to learn how to keep your head and body DOWN while negotiating obstacles like barbed wire, mud, and logs. Second time, in daylight, repeat above as a few 50-Cal rounds were fired over our heads. Third time, same as second time except it was dark. The tracers added a lot to our learning curve, encouraging any “doubters” that this was serious stuff. Never heard anyone say: “Keep your helmets on!” That was in 1962. Forget it yet? Nope.
Now this is “Ned-in-the-Primer” compared to being in a helicopter under enemy fire wherein their intention is to kill those in the copter. And to “misremember” the details is beyond belief. The session Williams did with Letterman puts all his disclaimers in the garbage!