Blood Upon the Risers” is an American paratrooper song from World War II. It is associated with all airborne units, including the 82nd Airborne Division, the 101st Airborne Division, the 173rd Airborne Brigade and 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) of the 25th Infantry Division, and the 120th CTS (United States) as well as British airborne units, also being known as “Mancha Roja” (Spanish for “Red Stain”) in many airborne units from multiple Latin American countries. In Spain it is called “Sangre en las cuerdas” (Blood upon the risers in english).


The song is and was sung by troopers training to jump qualify as an act of comic camaraderie – by singing a somber sounding but comic song depicting their worst possible training outcome, members of the unit were able to not only hide their own fears, but use the fact that every one was equally working to hide theirs as a moment of bonding and genuine help in holding their courage, the song ending with the group assuring itself that if this did happen at least “You ain’t gonna  jump no more.”



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Lyrics

 

He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with fright,
He checked all his equipment and made sure his pack was tight;
He had to sit and listen to those awful engines roar,
“You ain’t gonna jump no more!”
(CHORUS)
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
He ain’t gonna jump no more!
“Is everybody happy?” cried the Sergeant looking up,
Our Hero feebly answered “Yes,” and then they stood him up;
He jumped into the icy blast, his static line unhooked,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more.
CHORUS
He counted long, he counted loud, he waited for the shock,
He felt the wind, he felt the cold, he felt the awful drop,
The silk from his reserves spilled out, and wrapped around his legs,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more.
CHORUS
The risers swung around his neck, connectors cracked his dome,
Suspension lines were tied in knots around his skinny bones;
The canopy became his shroud; he hurtled to the ground.
And he ain’t gonna jump no more.
CHORUS
The days he’d lived and loved and laughed kept running through his mind,
He thought about the girl back home, the one he’d left behind;
He thought about the medic corps, and wondered what they’d find,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more.
CHORUS
The ambulance was on the spot, the jeeps were running wild,
The medics jumped and screamed with glee, they rolled their sleeves and smiled,
For it had been a week or more since last a ‘Chute had failed,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more.
CHORUS
He hit the ground, the sound was “SPLAT”, his blood went spurting high;
His comrades, they were heard to say “A hell of a way to die!”
He lay there, rolling ’round in the welter of his gore,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more.
CHORUS
There was blood upon the risers, there were brains upon the chute,
Intestines were a-dangling from his paratroopers suit,
He was a mess, they picked him up, and poured him from his boots,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more.
CHORUS[/read]