Blood On The Risers: An Airborne Soldier's Thirty-Five Months in Vietnam.

I read this book while in the US Army on a deployment (during down time) & this book found it's way throughtout the whole platoon in a matter of a month. It reads so quickly and is such a great narrative. An interesting point about the book is that it documents the only Airborne operation in Vietnam (I mean with parachutes you slimy LEGS). He also operated on a boat in the river & later as a LRRP. I would love to know if he ever wrote another book. Cool thing about my tattered paperback copy is that it has a photo of John Leppelman stepping out of a plane in the back, still Airborne after all those years. Definately a must read for you 1Ps. All the WAY!

This is a short review of Blood on the Risers by John Leppleman. The book is wonderful. His "attitude" fills every page. This is simply the best - a passionate memior. It is not for REMFs. I am not suprised by the detail of his memories. He shares his experiences with the 173rd during Operation Junction City to days on the river patrol boats during his second tour to back to the 173rd and the 2 Bn/75th Rangers during tour #3. As a former US Army junior officer in the 1970's I frequently encountered many with his outlook. They were outstanding field troops.

One of the best books written about Vietnam. The Author is down to earth, realistic and ironical. This book really deserves a look.

You would expect this book to be filled with stories from an airborne soldier's 35 month tour in Vietnam, but it is much more.What makes this book exceptional is that it begins with the author beginning his tour in Vietnam as an airborne soilder in the 'herd' where he learns the reality of being cannon fodder at the direction of officers and NCO's who have not a clue or concern for anything other than their own ego's and careers. Lepp escapes certain death by poor leadership by extending his tour with a transfer to a riverboat, where he again finds the ego's and ticket punchers. Lepp again extends to find a new home, only to land in warrior heaven, where finding and killing the enemy comes before salutes and sandbags. This isn't the tale to feed the author's ego nor does it imply he was a hero. Simply a man who found himself to have a true warrior spirit and how difficult the Army made it for him and men like him to fight a war. In the end you get a good example of just how effective the warriors that the regular army calls 'trouble makers' can be when they are put together as a Ranger unit and allowed to operate as they should. Plenty of action from a front line view.This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in how the Army really functioned in Vietnam!Great Book Lepp!! Glad you survived to write it!

John, wrote a very down to earth story about his experiences in Vietnam. The story that he tells is the story that the Brass tried talking him out of writting. Why, you ask? Because John tells the bloody truth. The truth about some of the battles that the Brass rewrote, showing a more favorable reflection on them. John shared with me, some stories about his writting of this book and of the attemps to get him not to write it the way he did. He felt it was time that some truths were finely told. John was and is a grunt. A member of the Airborne Soldier community. A member of the only true airborne unit in Vietnam. The 173rd Airborne Bridge (Sep.) The title of the book comes from the song from Jump School. The song is played every morning in jump week to wake you up.