Medics have been carrying weapons for decades. Short answer, they started when enemy combatants targeted them in WWII.
Modern combat medics and corpsman carry the same rifles as everyone else since the military switched to intermediate cartridges. Historically, they were given more specialized PDW style weapons, compared to full size combat rifles.
Modern pilots still get issued ultra compact weapons for PDW purposes. But with the number of casualties in the Halo universe, I'd imagine combat medics would begin carrying smaller weapons, in liue of more medical equipment
SpartanSweed , did Bebop design the patch, and you had it made, or did he do all of it?