That was a real Marine, and the sign was real (update: or was it?)

Remember the picture of the supposed Marine with the cardboard sign? ("Lcpl Boudreaux Killed my Dad. then he Knocked up my Sister!") It turns out that it was probably a real sign held up by a real Marine reservist. See the story in the Marine Times.

Would that it were true, but here's a fake based on the original sign: "Lcpl Boudreaux saved my Dad. then he rescued my Sister!"

The only problem is the handwriting is internally inconsistent, for instance in the lower-case "d"s. Nice try, but let's do better next time.

There's a higher-res version of the original picture here.

Supposedly the Marines will finish their investigation in a week or two, and I'll provide an update when that's released.

UPDATE: I just spoke with Jeff Pool, the Marine Forces Reserve spokesman mentioned in the Marine Corps Times article. He indicated that all aspects of this event are being investigated, and that it's still open whether the photo was altered or not. The Marine Corps Times article had implied that the photo itself was not in question, only the information on the sign. So, it might turn out that the photo itself was altered. The results of the investigation are expected shortly, perhaps even today.

UPDATE 2: There's a long discussion about this here.

UPDATE 3: Boudreaux says the sign was doctored; the Marines have reopened their investigation.

Iraq · Sun, 04/11/2004 - 19:50 · · Importance: 1