'Never refuse a mission'

A soldier washes out the blood from the floor of the Blackhawk. Picture: Gary Ramage.

"The Marine was gone - he most probably left us before being placed on the Blackhawk - but I still had to try and save him, that's my job'', Sgt Montavan said.

Once the engines were shut off, the rest of the detachment came out and started to help strip the armour platting from the floor so they could wash out all of the blood.

They handed out plastic gloves and began to scrub. I put my cameras down again, and started to help with the cleanup. After we had finished, Sgt Derek Costine called my name.

"Gary... catch.'' He threw me the unit patch and said, "Welcome, thanks for helping out''.

The time now was about 10.30am.

This was day two of my embed with Dustoff. It is going to be a busy two weeks.

Australian Gary Ramage is embedded with U.S. troops in Afghanistan, most recently with the Dustoff crews from Charlie Company, 6th Battalion Combat Airmobile Brigade (CAB) of the 101st Airborne Division. Read the whole story, and don't miss the photo gallery.

Thanks to our DUSTOFF crews for all they do. And thank you to Gary for telling their stories.