Are Medics Targeted In War. In modern times, most combat medics carry a personal weapon, to be used to protect themselves and the wounded or sick in their care. Medics in world war ii were the front line of battlefield medicine.
However, medics and medical units are permitted to have small arms for the defense of their patients and medical assets against actual enemy attack. As with much of military medicine, significant advances in the movement of injured troops came in the first world war, with better infrastructure for medical transportation in a system called the 'chain of evacuation'. Hospitals being deliberately targeted, medics say.