Well, you know...
The USS Bataan (LHD-5) just happens to be an amphibious assault ship that already carries (variously) Harriers, CH-46's, CH-53E's, UH-1N's, AH-1W's and (ta-da!) V-22's. As reported in the article, these two particular V-22's were on their way back to the ship when they got the call to put the pedal to the metal.
But...
What if the Bataan had just tasked one of their resident MH-53's to do the job? Had the injured sailor been put on a '53 at 4:30 instead of waiting for the V-22 to get back, he would've arrived that same airport at about the same time, negating any speed advantage that the V-22 has. But that wouldn't have made quite as good a news story, would it?
Okay, so they wanted to highlight the speed of the V-22 and use it for the job, and this was a pretty good opportunity. I get that.
But...
What if the V-22 could *not* have landed on the boat? Could the sailor have been winched aboard?
There is no doubt that a properly-equipped V-22 would make a kick-ass SAR aircraft. But this is not a case where the V-22 was the only aircraft that could do this job, or that the V-22 did the job "better" than anything else in the fleet, or that the V-22 "saved a life" that would otherwise have been lost had it not been available.
This little medevac run makes for a nice story, but by itself it hardly justifies the existence of the V-22 - especially when you know more of the story.