Military medicine in the context of Mobile army surgical hospital (US)

Combatant is the legal status of a person entitled to directly participate in hostilities during an armed conflict, and may be intentionally targeted by an adverse party for their participation in the armed conflict. Combatants are not afforded immunity from being directly targeted in situations of armed conflict and can be attacked regardless of the specific circumstances simply due to their status, so as to deprive their side of their support.

In an interstate conflict, the definition of "combatant" is found in Article 43 (2) of Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions: "Members of the armed forces of a Party to a conflict (other than medical personnel and chaplains covered by Article 33 of the Third [Geneva] Convention) are combatants, that is to say, they have the right to participate directly in hostilities." Combatants when captured by an opposing party are automatically granted the status of protected persons, whether as prisoners of war or unlawful combatants.

A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine but it has also been used to describe alternate care sites used in disasters and other emergency situations.

A field hospital is a medical staff with a mobile medical kit and, often, a wide tent-like shelter (at times an inflatable structure in modern usage) so that it can be readily set up near the source of casualties. In an urban environment, the field hospital is often established in an easily accessible and highly visible building (such as restaurants, schools, hotels and so on). In the case of an airborne structure, the mobile medical kit is often placed in a normalized container; the container itself is then used as shelter. A field hospital is generally larger than a temporary aid station but smaller than a permanent military hospital.

Under the Geneva Conventions, the emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement are to be worn by all medical and humanitarian personnel and also displayed on their vehicles and buildings while they are in an active warzone, and all military forces operating in an active warzone must not attack entities displaying these emblems. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement recognizes four protection emblems, three of which are in use: the Red Cross (recognized since 1864), the Red Crescent (recognized since 1929), the Red Lion and Sun (recognized since 1929; unused since 1980), and the Red Crystal (recognized since 2005).

The Red Cross was the original protection symbol declared at the First Geneva Convention in 1864. The Red Crescent, which was first used by the Ottoman Empire in the 1870s, and the Red Lion and Sun, which had been used only in Iran between 1924 and 1980, were both formally recognized as protection symbols following a 1929 amendment to the Geneva Conventions. Controversy stemming from the movement's successive rejections of the Red Star of David, which was established in 1899 and has been used only in Israel, led to the creation of the Red Crystal as the fourth protection symbol by a vote in 2005. In 2006, the movement announced that it was officially adopting the Red Crystal as a neutral symbol and that it was also granting formal recognition to Israel's Magen David Adom alongside the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Protected persons is a legal term under international humanitarian law and refers to persons who are under specific protection of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, their 1977 Additional Protocols, and customary international humanitarian law during an armed conflict.

The legal definition of different categories of protected persons in armed conflicts is found in each of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and in the 1977 Additional Protocols. The extent of protection and obligations of belligerent states and parties depends on the type of the armed conflict (international or not international) as well as on the category of protected persons in terms of their age (adult/child), sex (man/woman), participation in the armed conflict (combatant/prisoner of war/civil person) and personal situation (e.g. shipwrecked, sick, wounded, and etc.).

Battlefield medicine, also known as field surgery and later combat casualty care, is the treatment of wounded combatants and non-combatants in or near an area of combat. Civilian medicine has been greatly advanced by procedures that were first developed to treat the wounds inflicted during combat. With the advent of advanced procedures and medical technology, even polytrauma can be survivable in modern wars. Battlefield medicine is a category of military medicine.

Combatant is the legal status of a person entitled to directly participate in hostilities during an armed conflict, and may be intentionally targeted by an adverse party for their participation in the armed conflict under the law of war. Combatants are not afforded immunity from being directly targeted in situations of armed conflict and can be attacked regardless of the specific circumstances simply due to their status, so as to deprive their side of their support.

In interstate conflicts, the definition of "combatant" is found in Article 43(2) of Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions: "Members of the armed forces of a Party to a conflict (other than medical personnel and chaplains covered by Article 33 of the Third [Geneva] Convention) are combatants, that is to say, they have the right to participate directly in hostilities." Combatants when captured by an opposing party are automatically granted the status of protected persons, whether as prisoners of war or unlawful combatants.