Blood on the Risers: An Airborne Soldier's Thirty-five Months in Vietnam [Mass Market Paperback]

John Leppelman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 1991

From Dak To to the Tet Offensive, John Leppelman saw it all. In three tours of duty, he made combat jumps, spent months of fruitless effort looking for the enemy, watched as his budies died because of lousy leadership and lousy weapons. He saw the war as few others did, and lives to tell about the valor and sacrifice that outlived the dead.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

From Dak To to the Tet Offensive, John Leppelman saw it all. In three tours of duty, he made combat jumps, spent months of fruitless effort looking for the enemy, watched as his budies died because of lousy leadership and lousy weapons. He saw the war as few others did, and lives to tell about the valor and sacrifice that outlived the dead.

From AudioFile

Author Leppelman's recollections of the Vietnam War restrictthemselves to day-by-day life in combat at the expense ofcommentary. Scott Sowers takes full advantage of the memoir's shortsentences and strong language by molding his delivery to capture theauthor's bitterness and ambivalence about the war, feelings manyAmericans had at the time. Listeners face a military lingo ofundefined acronyms and abbreviations (MVA, RVN, R&R, Deuce and a half,1049), which occupy every paragraph, and an abridgment that suffersfrom gaps and confusing transitions. The performance's rebellious andbelligerent tone portrays a soldier emotionally damaged by war--thisdamage is the audiobook's principal raison d'être. J.A.H. ©AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press; 1st Ed. edition (June 2, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804105626
• ISBN-13: 978-0804105620
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #507,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > History > Asia > Southeast Asia
  • #56 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > History > Americas > United States > 20th Century
  • #58 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > History > Military > Vietnam War

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Airborne!, October 9, 2003

By 

David M. Heaukulani (Hilo, HI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blood on the Risers: An Airborne Soldier's Thirty-five Months in Vietnam (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a must read for anybody who was airborne and enlisted. I must have read 40 books on Nam and this is right up there with the best. A great read that gives you a gut-wrenching feeling on how the infantry warriors truly suffered. It is a wonder John survived his first tour. The value of the book is the first hand account of an ordinary American boy turned warrior in three totally different venues: airborne infantry, brown water swabbie, and airborne ranger. I'd love to buy him a beer if he ever shows up at the 82nd Airborne Assn. or USMC Force Recon Assn. reunions. Airborne John, all the way!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real view of the Army and fighting in Vietnam, September 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Blood on the Risers: An Airborne Soldier's Thirty-five Months in Vietnam (Mass Market Paperback)

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!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Down to earth honest telling of how it was, May 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Blood on the Risers: An Airborne Soldier's Thirty-five Months in Vietnam (Mass Market Paperback)

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.