BLOOD ON THE RISERS (with added verses from Vince Speranza) He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with fright As he checked out his equipment and made sure his pack was tight Then he had to sit and hear those awful engines roar And he ain’t gonna jump no more 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 And he ain’t gonna jump no more Is everybody happy cried the sergeant looking up Our hero bravely answered “Yes” and then they stood him up He jumped right out into the blast, his static line unhooked And he ain’t gonna jump no more (Chorus) He counted loud, he counted long, he waited for the shock He felt the wind, he felt the cold, he felt that awful drop The silk from his reserve spilled out and wrapped around his legs And he ain’t gonna jump no more (Chorus) The risers wrapped around his neck, connectors cracked his dome Suspension lines were tied in knots around his skinny bones The canopy became his shroud as he hurtled to the ground And he ain’t gonna jump no more (Chorus) The days he lived and loved and laughed kept running through his mind He thought about the girl back home, the one he left behind He thought about the medics and he 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, rolled up 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, the blood went spurting high His comrades were heard to say, “What a hell of a way to die” He lay there rolling around in all 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-hanging from his paratrooper boots They picked him up still in the chute and poured him from his boots And he ain’t gonna jump no more (Chorus) The letter they sent home went to his wife and baby son Madam we regret to say your trooper’s life is done But hold your head up high, his name is written in the sky And he ain’t gonna jump no more (Chorus) The baby son grew up and said, “A troopers life for me A jumper like my daddy was is all I wanna be I only hope that I can jump as half as well as he” And he ain’t gonna jump no more (Chorus) They sent him to Afghanistan and then into Iraq The bullet that came speeding out went deep into his back He hit the ground, but his grenade found enemy on track And he ain’t gonna jump no more (Chorus) |