This is a screen capture from a YouTube video that claims to show a U.S. soldier wounded in a firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. (Source: You Tube Funker530)(RNN) - A helmet-cam video of a U.S. Army soldier getting hit by Taliban machine gun fire is exploding on YouTube, with more than 1.5 million views so far.
The disturbing three-and-a-half minute video shows the soldier taking and returning fire before he goes down and repeatedly cries, "I'm hit." WARNING: The footage is graphic, contains rough language and may be troubling to some viewers.
Puffs of dust and flying rock appear to be bullets striking the ground at the soldier's feet. He can be heard breathing heavily and calling out to his comrades before he falls and begins calling for help.
The video was uploaded to YouTube by Funker530, who created a channel that includes other "raw combat footage documented." He also has a Facebook page and a Twitter feed, as well as an online store to buy T-shirts and gear.
The commentary on the site says the soldier's body armor was not penetrated and that he survived.
The video exemplifies a growing trend of documenting live combat and the life of deployed military.
Funker530 has uploaded multiple, similar videos that resemble first-person shooter video games. Among them is one described as a firefight in Afghanistan, in what appears to be a field of marijuana, with nearly 750,000 hits, and another described as a gunner hit by shrapnel, which has more than 430,000 hits.
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