Counting consecutive blank cells?

I need to count consecutive blank cells in between nonblank cells. For example:

Column A:
H
(blank)
(blank)
A
(blank)
V

I need the cell next to "A" to return the number 2 because there are two blank cells in between A and "H", the next nonblank cell (counting upwards).

So the cell next to "V" must return the number 1 because there is only one blank cell in between V and the next nonblank cell, going up.

Please help. I tried a couple CountIf and IFBLANK formulas with no success.

Thanks a lot,

Ryan