A combat lifesaver is a soldier who has received rudimentary training in advanced first aid skills. These advanced skills include wilderness first aid but also some paramedic skills such as intubation and advanced airway management.
Combat lifesavers are neither first aid providers nor fully qualified emergency medical technicians. They are a weird mixture of both optimized to provide lifesaving care for trauma and medical emergencies on the battlefield.
Combat lifesaver skills are exactly that, for use in combat conditions only. The alternative is not between skilled care and a (much less qualified) lifesaver's care, but between basic first aid and a lifesaver's care. The combat lifesaver is a link in the military chain of survival between buddy and self first aid and the platoon medic who is a fully qualified medical professional.
The United States Army developed the combat lifesaver program as an effort to make advanced medical skills available to smaller units such as vehicle crews.
