Long before he was caught lying about his chopper being forced down by enemy fire in Iraq, Brian Williams boasted how he bravely rescued a terrified puppy from a house fire.
Or maybe it was two puppies.
The truth-challenged NBC anchor told dueling versions of his supposed heroics as a teenage volunteer firefighter with the Old Village Fire Company in Middletown, NJ.
In October 2011, Williams waxed rhapsodic about how his dad took him to fires.
“I remember one such house fire . . . conducting a search on my hands and knees, when I felt something warm, squishy and furry on the floor of a closet,” Williams said.
“I instinctively tucked it in my coat. When I got outside, I saw two small eyes staring up at me, and I returned the 3-week-old and very scared puppy to its grateful owners,” he said.
But in July 2005, he told a different story, insisting he had saved not one but two pups from certain death.
“All I ever did as a volunteer fireman was once save two puppies,” he said, according to Esquire magazine.