Combat Medics

[Starbug]

My coil gun users have a particle pistol as a "backup weapon" in case they run out of ammo (which is a very real possibility with that weapon), though that in itself is a tradeoff between having the backup pistol or having a medkit, or having 2 more coil shots.
My grenade launcher guy has one for close quarters where using a grenade would be detrimental to his long and short term health (though it could be argued that a particle pistol can be used as a primary weapon given its power and accuracy.)

Speaking of plasma blades, all my troops keep one of those in their holsters too, next to the medkit (yeah, they have to be careful which one they pull out  ). They are very good for when you discover a heavily armoured ortnok round the corner, but you don't have enough TU or troops to bring him down with regular fire. And for close encounters in general.

[Triaxx2]

One situation I encountered was in a game where a UFO popped up just ahead of my returning dropship and shot it down and all the useful weapons were on board. I only had enough cash for a new drop ship, so I had to send my second team, which had been intended for a second base, with whatever weapons I had lying around, so they ended up with nothing more than pistols, SMG's and a single Machine Gun I had manufactured. It was surprisingly effective.

[Jon_dArc]

Also true, but then you have the current problem in that pistol weapons are pretty much ignored as pointless because why use one when you can just use a rifle instead? The starting difference in soldier stats is generally negligible except for the odd exceptional recruit, using a weapon with an 18 skill doesn't seem to have much difference to using one with 23 and that range is more common than anything outside it.

Pistols have two big things going for them: very low minimum TU usage and one-handed use. The latter in particular means you can have a different damage type in each hand—in 2.4 I often had soldiers with a laser pistol in one hand for ranged combat and a monoknife in the other for when they rounded a corner smack into a hostile. In 2.5 the plasma pistol is currently so good that a knife is no longer necessary, but a grenade in hand can be very handy (8 TUs instead of 10 to deploy). When particle beam pistols come onto the scene, plasma pistol+PBP becomes viable.

As for backup weapons, for most purposes I find that the machine pistol is the only pistol small enough to serve backup—and that's obsolete almost as soon as the game starts.

~J

[kons21]

I usually give every soldier a medikit. I will probably carry on doing this until penalties for carrying too much weight are implemented.

Same here.  This way everyone's chances increase.  I usually split my squad into two or three people exploring different areas. Each person turns into a dedicated medic.  I mean the two TU's to move the medkit from the holster to the hand are nothing especially considering the fact that after applying the patch you won't be able to shoot anyway. 

The way I see it, this allows me to split into three to four small squads who have high survival rate. I don't see how that would work with a dedicated medic.  Most soldiers have around 30 TU's. Heal is 20.  That gives the medic about four steps range.  If you use only one or two medics you greatly limit their coverage area. 

In my case, everyone is a medic and everyone comes out at full health at the end of a mission. That way I buy myself at least one or two successful (no dead operatives) automatic missions.  Then when I get in, most of my soldiers are banged up from the automatic AI and I hold small "healing parties" where everyone heals everyone.  To be honest, when I found out that I could do that, I sold all my hospitals.  X-Com had it more realistic in the terms that medkits applied immediate help on the field but never removed the injuries for after the fight and the operatives still had to recover after a field injury.  But then it is a hassle to always have a healthy squad.  But I digress...

I am definitely on the "everyone is a medic" side of this debate.  I really don't see the usefulness of a dedicated medic.