page_title: Combat medic
section_title: Modern day
hierarchical_section_title: Combat medic / Modern day
caption_attribution_description: English: A Special Forces soldier, A Co., 1st Bn., 7th Special Forces Group gives an Afghan boy a coloring book in Kandahar Province, during a meeting with local leaders, Sept. 12, 2002. The SF team and Afghan commandos met with religious leaders to gain their support and obtain information about insurgents in the region. Special Forces soldiers, working with Afghan commandos in this region, often wear the Battle Dress Uniform to blend in with their Afghan counterparts. (Photo by Steve Hebert)
context_page_description: Combat medic or field medic is a US term for military personnel who have been trained to at least an EMT-B level, and are responsible for providing first aid and frontline trauma care on the battlefield. They are also responsible for providing continuous medical care in the absence of a readily available physician, including care for disease and battle injuries. Combat medics are normally co-located with the combat troops they serve in order to easily move with the troops and monitor ongoing health. Other countries have similar services, but this article is primarily concerned with the US provision.
context_section_description: Medical personnel from most western nations carry weapons for protection of themselves and their patients but remain designated non combatants, wearing the red cross, crescent or crystal. In the United States Armed Forces, MEDEVAC Vehicles will display a large Red Cross on a white background; however, ground forces do not display this due to increased targeting of medical personnel by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
  Traditionally, most United States medical personnel also wore a distinguishing red cross, to denote their protection as non-combatants under the Geneva Convention. This practice continued into World War II. However, the enemies faced by professional armies in more recent conflicts are often insurgents who either do not recognize the Geneva Convention or choose not to adhere to it, and thus readily engage all personnel, irrespective of non-combatant status.   As their non combatant status is not respected, many US medics no longer wear non combatant markings. This can enable medics to be used as medically trained soldiers, fighting aggressively rather than just in self-defence. Combat Medics in the United States Army and United States Navy Hospital Corpsmen are virtually indistinguishable from regular combat troops, except for the extra medical equipment they carry.
  The modern-day interpretation of the U.S. Army doctrine requires medics to carry one primary weapon and, if possible, a secondary weapon. It is also common to find American combat medics who are no longer wearing the red or white cross because it is considered unethical to do so when the combat medic is carrying weapon and could engage in actual combat. 
  In the U.S. Navy, enlisted medical personnel are known as corpsmen, not medics. The colloquial form of address for a hospital corpsman is "Doc". In the U.S. Marine Corps, this term is generally used as a sign of respect. The U.S. Navy deploys FMF Hospital Corpsman attached to U.S. Marine Corps units as part of the Fleet Marine Force. Since the U.S. Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy, it relies on Navy corpsmen and other Naval medical personnel for medical care.
  U.S. Air Force aerospace medical services technicians have frequently served attached to U.S. Army units in recent conflicts. Though all combat medical personnel are universally referred to as "medic", within different branches of the U.S. military, the skill level, quality of training and scope of work performed by medics varies from branch to branch. 
  As a result of the 2005 BRAC, the U.S. Department of Defense has moved most medical training for all branches of the armed forces to Fort Sam Houston of Joint Base San Antonio. A new Medical Education and Training Campus was constructed and the Air Force's 937th Training Group and Naval Hospital Corps School were relocated to Fort Sam Houston, joining the Army's existing Army Medical Department Center & School.  Although each service has some training particular to its branch, the bulk of the course material and instruction is shared between medical personnel of the different services.
caption: A U.S. Special Forces medic in Afghanistan.
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