91A vs 68W - is a combat medic a combat medic?

I carried an M4 with 210 rounds, an m9 with 60 rounds, an Aid bag that had everything I could possibly need and a drop leg pouch that had tourniquets. All of that was in addition to the IOTV and ACH that we all have to wear. All of that gear easily took me from 185 lbs to 235-240 lbs. Forget about needing a rucksack. We conducted an air assault mission in Iraq and had to pack for a month....I chose medical gear over uniforms. Couldn't carry both!

I would definitely prefer a dirty and smelly medic with medical gear than a medic that had clean clothes.

I can not speak for every medic, but I carried a full combat load for M4 plus a M9 with 45 RDS. Usually had a thigh pack with combat gauze, tourniquets, morphine for short trips, for long trips I carried my medic bag with everything including IV and suture kits.

I was a Combat Medic deployed with a Light Infantry 81-mm Mortar Platoon in 2003 to Kuwait a month before the war, then headed north after things kicked off. My basic load was an M4 with 210 rounds, two cans of smoke, my M17 aid bag, JSLIST chemical suit, M40 chemical protective mask, and all the water and stripped down MREs I could carry in my large ruck.

When I deployed back to Iraq as a Combat Medic to conduct mounted patrol, my basic load was both an M4 with 210 and an M9 with 3 mags of 15. My aid bag was upgraded to a Blackhawk STOMP II packed solely for trauma. I also carried a pouch on my left thigh, opposite my M9, that carried a couple tourniquets, some needles for chest decompression, a couple homemade cricothyrodoromy kits, a field dressing and some tape and dressings. Of course I squirreled away some goodies in other trucks, just in case my truck was taken out.

As far as calling those that haven't been engaged in combat, or haven't done time as a line medic...I guess it's all semantics. We train for combat from day 1, so I'm cool with it. Even with this badge above US ARMY, there's still someone better at my job who hasn't had the pleasure of deploying to the nether region of the earth. We all have our specific duties, but our core fundamentals are the tactics, techniques and procedures associated with combat medicine.

To add to salt tablets they're no
Longer needed. I use salt from MREs with flavor packets and water to ghetto rig and not have extra weight.

So I'll give you my run down of deployment as a combat medic (I say combat medic meaning with infantry, with countless patrols a week. All that hooah jazz)
I had my m4 for combat load and M9. Wearing a plate carrier.
As far as medical supplies I carried multiple bags of he tend as well as saline for just incase heat injury. Massive amounts of bleeding control. TQ combat gauze all that jazz. Airway control and pain management meds. For longer times away from the fob I would also carry meds and other stuff to take care of minor medical issues to keep my boys going. In total I carried around 120lbs of gear. Weighing 270lbs standing normal i weighed myself just over 400 in full everything. Combat medicine has change and advance for the better. Our ability to move combat wounded from point of injury to role three care and home has a massive survivabilty rate. It is thanks to those that came before us that we are where we are today.
Welcome home SPC, thank you for your service.

I usually just carry a CSH on my back. 18D (best medicine is shooting the bad guy first)

Just to comment on the differences. My last three deployments were as team medic for PSD teams or platoon medic for infantry platoons. I have only done one deployment as a hospital medic. Now I'm in a medic unit and even my superiors give me strange looks because of some of the training I suggest. Hospital medics receive far better training, but most simply don't have what it takes to be field/combat medics. Good combat medics could kick a hospital medic's ass in any trauma situation, hands down. As far as gear is concerned, it usually depends on the mode of travel (an MRAP can carry a lot more than a single person). If you're patrolling, it's probably advisable to spread load gear throughout the platoon (one WALK kit per squad to include poleless litter). Not only is the medic dual carrying weapons and ammo, he also has his aid bag to consider.

I enlisted as a 91A. Before I arrived at Sam, it was merged into 91B. Carried that MOS until 2000, when they merged about a dozen clinical MOS into 91W, then when they renumbered everything Army-wide so Officer & Enlisted branch numbers matched. At the end of the day, a line medic is still a line medic, and while the knowledge base may have expanded and capabilities grown, the majority of the complaints remain the same... chronic diarrhea, dehydration (our Joes have energy drinks instead of amphetamines,) monkey butt, and other forms of the crud. APC pills are long gone, but the treatment creed has remained "Change your Motrin, Drink your Socks, and Take some water..."

It all depended on the mission, dismounted I would have every one of my infantrymen carry an if kit and I would load down with Hester's and trauma equipment. On top of my m4 and full combat load. Mounted I would have two aid bags, an m9 that never left my back with enough trauma equipment to get my soldier back to the truck where my big aid bag waited.