J. H. Kight Copyright 1943
- 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)
- 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,
- He ain't gonna jump no more!
- "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,
- 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 reserves spilled out, and wrapped around his legs,
- He ain't gonna jump no more.
- (CHORUS)
- The risers swung 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.
- He ain't gonna jump no more.
- (CHORUS)
- The days he'd lived and loved and laughed kept running through his mind,
- He thought about the girl back home, the one he'd left behind;
- He thought about the medic corps, and wondered what they'd find,
- 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, they rolled their sleeves and smiled,
- For it had been a week or more since last a 'Chute had failed,
- He ain't gonna jump no more.
- (CHORUS)
- He hit the ground, the sound was "SPLAT", his blood went spurting high;
- His comrades, they were heard to say "A hell of a way to die!"
- He lay there, rolling 'round in the welter of his gore,
- He ain't gonna jump no more.
- (CHORUS)
- (slowly, solemnly; about half the speed of the other verses)
- There was blood upon the risers, there were brains upon the chute,
- Intestines were a-dangling from his paratroopers suit,
- He was a mess, they picked him up, and poured him from his boots,
- 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,
- He ain't gonna jump no more!
