Doctored soldier picture making the email rounds

flipped flagThis photo was emailed to me along with a ton of forwarding headers and a bunch of people in the CC: field. (click on the photo to see a full-sized version). Here's the text that came with it:

"Nothing like the US soldier's sense of  humor…and well aimed!

Hooray for our troops.

READ THE BLACK PATCH UNDER THE US FLAG;

This SHOULD be on the front cover of Time, Newsweek, etc.

But it won't.

Let's you and I 'put it there' by forwarding this all around the world (so

to speak)!

(The flags are France, Germany, and Russia)– in case you don't know.."
 

It's easy to tell that the black patch and the three flags below it have been added after the photo was taken. They are almost hovering off the fabric of the uniform. But the big giveaway is the US flag. Isn't it facing the wrong way? The stars are usually on the left. This is a mirror image. I'm guessing this picture was horizontally flipped before someone added the black patch and the other country's flags. I should have checked snopes before posting this. The photo is fake. I was wrong about the flag, though. The patch really looks like that. According to snopes, it's to give the appearing that the flag is flying in a breeze blowing towards the front of the soldier. (Thanks Cody!)

David Calkins emailed me another version of the photo, with these badges.