Hey, remember a few weeks ago when the media pounced on the story of the Marine who’d survived a fire fight due to his fantastic kevlar helmet? The one that was all shot up? Well, it turns out that it wasn’t true. Read this story (again from Ananova) and wonder to yourself why the network news shows didn’t bother to correct themselves… how embarassing.
The picture of Eric Walderman went around the world along with a story of a miracle survival in a firefight with Iraqis.
Walderman and his comrades fooled the media by pretending he had escaped death by inches when he was shot at.
Instead, his helmet was just lying on top of his pack when it was hit by fellow Marines trying to shoot an unexploded anti-tank weapon.
Eric, 28, then popped it on his head and posed for photographers travelling with 40 Commando before they took Umm Qasr in southern Iraq. He gave no interview but he and his colleagues did nothing to stop journalists jumping to conclusions.
