"Blood Upon the Risers" is an American paratrooper song from World War II. It is associated with all current 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).
This song has been featured on the television miniseries Band of Brothers, the AMC Television Series Preacher, the video game Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, and also mentioned in Donald Burgett's book Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy. Sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", the song tells of the final fatal jump of a rookie paratrooper whose parachute fails to deploy. This results in him falling to his death.
The song is also a cautionary tale on the dangers of improper preparation of a parachute jump. The protagonist does everything right, except he forgets to hook on his static line which would automatically deploy his main parachute, and he in panic deploys his reserve chute in bad falling position with disastrous results. As the reserve chute is stored in a belly bag on the World War II era rig, deploying it in bad falling position could easily lead to an accident not unlike the one described in the song. "Risers" are the four straps which connect the suspension lines of the parachute canopy to the parachute harness.
Video Blood on the Risers
Lyrics
These additional verses are sung by various veterans groups but they are not part of the original song:
Chorus confusion
It is disputed among veterans and historians as to whether the chorus says "Gory, Gory" or "Glory, Glory"1 like the original "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Since the song is often sung at a shout, it is hard to distinguish whether there is in fact an "L" sound when it is sung. The original published version, however, clearly shows "gory" to be the word. Some versions of the song substitute the second line of the chorus for "with a rifle on his back as he's falling through the sky". The version taught at Fort Benning, GA in 1975 used "They picked him up still in his 'chute and poured him from his jump boots". Alternatively, "paratrooper boots". Some versions will also state "They poured him from his helmet, and they poured him from his boots" for the final line of the song.
Maps Blood on the Risers
References
External links
- Blood on the Risers
- Men of Easy Company's official lyrics, archived from the original
- ASIN B00C5ZLWWI
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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