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The history or creation of RAM is rather unusual because you have to go back 50 or 60 years
to when I was a young vaquero on the Brazilian border in South America and in fact I was
asked this question recently by the 6th man to walk on the moon, astronaut Ed Mitchell
and I said well they gave me a wild horse to ride, a horse called Cane. Cane was a shiner
Indian name that meant the devil and Cane had already killed 2 other cowboys and looks
like I was going to be the 3rd one in line so we lassoed him in the corral and tied him
up and blindfolded him and put on the homemade saddle and I climbed on board and Cane went
bucking across the Savannah and had a head on collision with the side of the corral and
I was very badly injured and the other cowboys pulled me out from underneath the horse and
one of them said well the nearest doctor is 26 days on foot from here through that narrow
trail through the rainforest and when I told astronaut Ed Mitchell that story he said well
I was on the moon and I was only 3 days from the nearest doctor. I said well for the people
we treat at RAM events like this one here, all those people that live where I lived on
the Amazon, they might as well be on the moon for all the chance they have to get the care
they need. So really the inspiration for this program came from a wild horse that gave me
a kick in the head and made me realize that we need to bring doctors a little bit closer
than 26 days on foot. And so from there, 50 years ago it's morphed into this.