Remote Area Medical is a Tennessee based humanitarian aid organization started by Stan Brock (whom was of television fame from prior ventures). The operation’s primary purpose is to conduct public health clinics in impoverished regions, especially rural parts of Appalachia. Volunteer doctors, nurses, dentist, and assistants come together under RAM’s coordination turning gymnasiums, community centers, and other public venue settings into weekend long health provider sessions that are completely free of charge to the recipient patients.

Stan was British and spent much of his early life living rural Guyana in South America (British influenced at the time) as a cattle rancher. Working his way up from teenage youth as a ranch hand to eventually serving as manager, Stan was known far and wide in the Rupununi Region of Guyana. It was during these formative years Stan often served as a self-trained field medic tending to the medical needs of local tribal natives, especially the Wapishani which were a kind people close to his heart. With proper medical services several days to even weeks away, Stan developed a passion for aviation as a means to both better manage the expansive cattle ranges and provide rapid medical emergency transport.

Stan ended up leaving Guyana to pursue other ventures but the experiences in the Rupununi left a lasting impression on him. Later on in life after establishing RAM, Stan setup a satellite operation in rural Guyana in the form of a volunteer humanitarian air ambulance service as a way to give back to the isolated native people he loved in that special place. RAM would often send teams of doctors and nurses on medical expeditions to the region.

The story of how I found myself a part of this operation in the savannah and jungles of South America is as much a book in itself. It was many years in the making – the details of which play little impact on this story. The biggest takeaway is that I had the aviation qualifications, experience, and contacts to be a prime candidate for RAM.

To serve as a pilot/mechanic for RAM’s Guyana Cessna 206 Air Ambulance, one must complete an in-the-field orientation by tagging along with a qualified RAM pilot becoming familiar with how to run an air ambulance bush plane operation in a new environment. Aircraft familiarization, learning the paperwork, attending to passengers and medical patients, coordinating flights with the clinics and hospital, and getting checked out on most of the remote bush airstrips RAM services in the Rupununi region. On top of all that, one must also be interviewed by a Guyana Civil Aviation Authority official in order to be cleared to fly as a US pilot in that country.

At first I was wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into. Later when it came time to depart orientation, I did not want to leave. So upon returning to the United States, I agreed to be a part of RAM’s operations in Guyana.

UPDATE 2021 – RAM had to cease their air ambulance service in Guyana, mostly due to aircraft insurance providers no longer being able to cover the operation. I believe it also was part of a shift in RAM after Stan Brock’s passing as there was no longer a personal link to Guyana for the organization.