Fake.
The yelping sound is obviously fake, and the puppy doesn’t move at all or make a sound when he is being held up or while he is airborne.
The “soldiers” display no unit insignia or rank that I can see, and no weapons are visible. Uniforms are the older BDUs, not the new Marine issue.
If you listen carefully, you can hear a dog barking in the background. I think that the reason the camera angle is so tight is to make it difficult to see where the film was shot... like out behind someone’s house. The quality is poor, sugesting it may have been shot with a cell phone. If that is the case (and if the film is to be accepted as the real thing, as purported), what were soldiers doing with a cell phone while on patrol in a combat zone?
This stinks.
soldiers are not allowed cell phones on patrol?
The “yelping puppy” sounds just like a squeeze toy sold in any of millions of pet stores.
It has been more or less confirmed that the guy is a Marine. His name is known and he’s now bearing the brunt of an internet-generated shitstorm.
However, I think the dog was either fake or already dead. The noises are highly suspect. Not only the yelping, but the thud you hear when the dog lands. There is no way in hell a consumer-grade camera would pick up the sound of a dog that size landing at the bottom of a cliff 20 yards away.