"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 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 with disastrous results, as he becomes entangled in the parachute’s canopy and risers and falls uncontrollably to the ground below. As the reserve chute is stored in a belly bag on the World War II-era rig, deploying it in a bad falling position could easily lead to an accident, not unlike the one described in the song. "Risers" are the four straps that connect the suspension lines of the parachute canopy to the parachute harness.
It is associated with all current American airborne units, including the 82nd Airborne Division, the 173rd Airborne Brigade 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 upon the risers" in English).
This song has been featured in the television miniseries Band of Brothers, the television series Preacher, and the video game Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30. It was also mentioned in Donald Burgett's book Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy.
WWII veteran Vincent Speranza was recorded singing the chant in 2019, the video went viral on YouTube with more than one million views as of December 2023.[5] Vincent later recorded his own version of the chant and has 1.9 million views.[6]