Blood on the Risers

"Blood on the Risers" is een marslied uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Het wordt onder meer gezongen door de 82e Luchtlandingsdivisie, de 101e Luchtlandingsdivisie, de 173e Luchtlandingsbrigade en het 4e Brigade Combat Team van de 25e Infanteriedivisie van de Verenigde Staten. Dit nummer heeft een rol in de miniserie Band of Brothers en het videospel Brothers in Arms, en wordt genoemd in het boek Currahee! A Screaming Eagle in Normandy van Donald Burgett.

"Blood on the Risers" wordt gezongen op de melodie van de "Battle Hymn of the Republic" en vertelt over de laatste sprong van een parachutist wiens parachute niet werkt. Dit resulteert in zijn dood.

Tekst

Het wordt betwist of het koor "Gory, Gory" of "Glory, Glory" zingt, net als de originele "Battle Hymn of the Republic".

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!"

[REFREIN/]

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!

[\EINDE REFREIN]

"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.

(REFREIN)

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 reserve spilled out, and wrapped around his legs,

And he ain't gonna jump no more.

(REFREIN)

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.

(REFREIN)

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 medics, and He wondered what they'd find,

And he ain't gonna jump no more.

(REFREIN)

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.

(REFREIN)

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.

(REFREIN)

(slowly, solemnly; about half the speed of the other verses)

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.

(REFREIN)