Airborne Songs & Poems

[steve1 5]

After reading Airtwardo's great thread, I got to thinking. Does anyone remember any old Airborne songs or poems? A lot of old skydivers were also Airborne troopers at one time. I remember singing some of these on runs in the Army. Many of them were morbid, but that's what made them interesting....

[steve1 5]

This is one cadence that was called (on runs) when I was in Infantry training at Ft. Polk in 1970.....

I want to be an Airborne Ranger
I want to live a life of danger
I want to go to Vietnam
Just to kill old Charlie Cong

Up the hill....."Up the Hill"
Down the hill....."Down the Hill"
gonna be......"Gonna Be"
Airborne......"Airborne"
Ranger......"Ranger"
Won't quit......"Won't Quit"
Can't quit......"Can't Quit"
Driving on......."Driving On"

I guess this needs a drill sargent or black hat calling it, with a company of men replying, to make sense. My memory is about shot, but I still remember this cadence well!

[matthewcline 0]

Still used today with the location adjusted. When I was a Black Hat at Benning I would sing it and of course I would choose the wrong time to sing as we passed ABN School HQ and a staffer would hear it and snitch on me. It is that new PC thing after all.

Kind of like the time the students decided not to sound off so I stopped the formation in the middle of the road and proceeded to smoke them for 30 or so minutes. The only reason I didn't killed by the CSM was I did all the exercises with the students while he watched from his office.

Matt

An Instructors first concern is student safety.
So, start being safe, first!!!

[skybill 18]

Quote

After reading Airtwardo's great thread, I got to thinking. Does anyone remember any old Airborne songs or poems? A lot of old skydivers were also Airborne troopers at one time. I remember singing some of these on runs in the Army. Many of them were morbid, but that's what made them interesting....

Hi Steve1,
Do a search, there are lots of great songs!! Some of the Skydiving ones are spinoffs of the airborne ones.

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[steve1 5]

BLOOD ON THE RISERS
(chorus)
Gory, Gory, what a helluva way to die,
Gory, Gory, what a helluva way to die,
He ain't gonna jump no more!

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!
(chorus)

"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.
(chorus)

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,
(chorus)

The risers swun 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.
(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" his blood went spurting high,
His comrades then were heard to say: "A helluva way to die!"
He lay there rolling round in 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'dangling from his Paratrooper suit,
He was a mess; they picked him up, and poured him from his boots,
And he ain't gonna jump no more.
(chorus)

[skybill 18]

Hi Steve,
And don't forget,"Beautyful Streamer!!" Ole Howard mentioned somewhere here about the "The Parachute Songbook" from a very long time ago published by the NE Parachute council just dug up my copy out of the archives!! Beautyful Streamer and Blood on the risers came out of the Airborne but the rest are pretty much the product of twisted skydivers. eg, Little David age 39 1/2!!

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[steve1 5]

"Beautiful Streamer"
(to the tune of Beautiful Dreamer)

Beautiful streamer, why should you be?
Blue skies above and no canopy.
Billowing white silk is what I should see.
Beautiful streamer, please open for me.

Beautiful streamer at least fill in part,
Even a Mae West would give me a start.
Plummeting earthward, falling too fast-
I have the feeling my future just passed.

Beautiful streamer, please hear my song.
I have already counted too long,
Wouldn't have counted nearly so high
'Cept that my ripcord is caught in my fly.

Beautiful streamer, please help me rip her.
Don"t let me die just because of a zipper.
Jumpmaster should've told me when trying to seat us,
He must have noticed me bent like a fetus.

Beautiful streamer, I'd like to mention
Shouldn't a soldier die at attention?
No use of hoping, now it's too late
But this is no posture for St. Peter's gate.



"Oh, How I hate to Jump Out of An Airplane"
(to the tune of I hate to get up in the morning)

Oh, how I hate to jump out of an airplane!
Oh, how I'd love to remain on the ground!
For the hardest thing I know
Is to hear that man yell "Go"
You gotta jump out; you gotta jump out:
You gotta jump out of the airplane.

Someday I'm going to murder the jumpmaster,
Someday they're gonna find him dead;
And then I'll get the other pup,
The guy that takes the airplane up,
And spend the rest of my life in bed.

[patworks 5]

A Toast to the Sky
[adapted from a WWII Toast]

O look to the skies of clear-shot blue
And lift your glasses tall
And think of the world
Like a map unfurled
beneath your screaming fall

For here's to the sky for you and I
With our silken banners pinned
For here's a crew
that burns the blue
and rides on wings of wind.

Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

[patworks 5]

Night Jump
I wrote this in about 1963

Think of the night as a plane lifts off
with her engines screaming high.
Just you, your friends, and dim small lights
in God’s great empty sky.

Now, hear the plane! Feel the wind!
and see the lights below
and jump into a wonderous world
that few will ever know.

Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

[patworks 5]

I wrote this in ~ 1964
Come with me and we'll go up there
Where the wind blows cold and there ain’t much air.
Where clouds are ice and your blood runs thin
But—no sweat, buddy—we’re coming down again ...
Like an eagle. A screaming eagle.

When the Cessna gets so high she won't go no more
With a laugh and a holler it's out the door
Down amoungst those clouds to play
Like that old eagle who does nothin else all day

Pat Works nee Madden Travis Works, Jr .B1575, C1798, D1813, Star Crest Solo#1, USPA#189,

[steve1 5]

Great poems, Pat! I wish I knew more about writing that stuff....

Some people say that I'm a poet and I didn't know it....

[theonlyski 3]

A is for Army
R is for Army
M is for Army
Y is for Army

Come to think of it, thats pretty uncreative

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[steve1 5]

Seriously though, I wish I could write poetry. An old rodeo buddy of mine makes his living writing poems. He's considered the best free verse cowboy poet in the world.

I remember when we were both rodeo bums trying to raise enough cash for our next rodeo... It's kind of cool to read his poems about times and places that we both shared. I wish I was creative enough to be a poet.