The Gypsies

2nd Platoon “Gypsies” of Company C, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade have pulled hundreds of wounded U.S., British and Afghan troops from the battlefields of the Helmand River valley over the past year (you may remember them and Staff Sgt. Robert Cowdrey from this post).

Here they are working missions during Operation Mushtarak on February 13 and February 15.

Photographed through the plexiglass window of a U.S. Army Task Force Pegasus medevac helicopter rescuing two U.S. Marine casualties, Marines and Navy Corpsmen shield their patients from the dust wash caused by the landing helicopter, in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Monday Feb. 15, 2010. AP Photo/Brennan Linsley.

Airborne in a Black Hawk medevac helicopter, Crew Chief Spc. Timothy Johns, of Mitchell, S.D. , with Task Force Pegasus, scans for threats during a mission to rescue two U.S. Marine casualties from the battlefield in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Monday Feb. 15, 2010. AP Photo/Brennan Linsley.

A U.S. Marine helps provide security as a U.S. Army flight medic with Task Force Pegasus evacuates two Marine casualties from the battlefield, in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Monday Feb. 15, 2010. AP Photo/Brennan Linsley.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. and flight medic Robert B. Cowdrey, of La Junta, Colo., with Task Force Pegasus, runs from his helicopter to evacuate two U.S. Marine casualties from the battlefield in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Monday Feb. 15, 2010. AP Photo/Brennan Linsley.

Airborne in a Black Hawk medevac helicopter, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. and flight medic Robert B. Cowdrey, of La Junta, Colo. , left, and Crew Chief Spc. Timothy Johns, of Mitchell, S.D. , both with Task Force Pegasus, rescue two U.S. Marine casualties from the battlefield in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Monday Feb. 15, 2010. AP Photo/Brennan Linsley.

U.S. Army flight medic Staff Sgt. Robert B. Cowdrey, of La Junta, Colo., right, with Charlie Company, All American Dustoff, evacuates a U.S. Marine wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack, in Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010. AP Photo/Brennan Linsley.

Airborne in a Black Hawk medevac helicopter, U.S. Army flight medic Staff Sgt. Robert B. Cowdrey, of La Junta, Colo., right, with Charlie Company, All American Dustoff, talks with a Marine wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack, as Crew Chief Spc. Timothy Johns, of Mitchell, S.D., assists at left, over Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010. AP Photo/Brennan Linsley.


Update, October 2011: Godspeed, SSG Robert 'Brian' Cowdry.