"Blood on the Risers" is an American paratrooper song from World War II.[1]
Sung to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", the song tells of a fatal training jump of a rookie paratrooper whose parachute fails to deploy, resulting in him falling to his death. Each verse describes the man's death and the subsequent condition of his body in the aftermath. The chorus mimics the chorus in The Battle Hymn of the Republic, replacing the lyrics "Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on." with "Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die! He ain't gonna jump no more."[2] [3]
The song is a cautionary tale on the dangers of improper preparation of a parachute jump.[4] The protagonist does almost everything right but forgets to hook up his static line which would automatically deploy his main parachute. Upon discovering this error during the jump, he deploys his reserve chute in bad falling position. He becomes entangled in the parachute's canopy and risers, falls uncontrollably, and dies upon impact with the ground. American parachute rigs during World War II stored the reserve parachute in a belly bag, so deploying it in a bad falling position could easily lead to an accident similar to the one described in the song. "Risers" are the four straps that connect the suspension lines of the parachute canopy to the parachute harness.
The song is associated with all current American airborne units, including the 82nd Airborne Division, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the 101st Airborne Division and 11th Airborne Division, and the 120th CTS (United States) as well as British airborne units. It is known as "Mancha Roja" (Spanish for "Red Stain") in airborne units from multiple Latin American countries. In Spain it is called "Sangre en las cuerdas" ("Blood on the lines").
This song has been featured in the television miniseries Band of Brothers, the television series Preacher, and the video game . It was also mentioned in Donald Burgett's book , and in the Viet Nam War novel Gardens of Stone by Nicholas Proffitt.
WWII veteran Vincent Speranza was recorded singing the chant in 2019; the video has more than one million views on YouTube as of December 2023. Speranza later recorded his own version of the chant.