NEED HELP ABOUT MY FIELD DESK

[Buckshot329]

Hello,

Need help to find out if the "FIELD DESK" I have in my collection is a WWII or a reproduction?

 

The drawer is signed "USMC, BOYT, 1943"

 

[Bluehawk]

I'll offer these observations about the desk shown in your photo here.

 

I had and used a GI field desk that size for 20+ years in private life.

 

1. The interior wood looks awfully new to me for it to be WWII vintage. Maybe it has been recently sanded?

 

2. I don't know if Marine desks had a different number and placement of drawers, but the configuration of slots in the photo, some of which would or probably should have been for drawers, does not resemble any field desk of that size I have used or seen illustrated on USMF or elsewhere.

 

My desk, and ones of that size I've seen, had a thin drawer at top left, a long vertical drawer with inserts on the right, and two small drawers of the same size (about the size of the one drawer you do have in this photo) at the bottom, with a big empty space at center left.

 

3. The interior wood of field desks I have seen is usually left unfinished or might have a clear unpainted surface without any insignia or symbols.

 

Obviously anything is possible, and I have been wrong too often to remember.

[doyler]

Hard to say but the stencil is later than WW2.This style ega came in after Korea.With the desks being used for many years its hard to say when it was added.I have seen a few marine type field desks and one a friend has was actually made out of a ammunition crate.Saw another in Iola Wisconsin one year and it was also field made and had the unit stencils on it.(diamonds with numbers)

 

RD

[Bud]

I am an Army Retired 1SG and had a field desk (which my guys scrounged up from somewhere, I never asked questions<GRIN>). Mine did not appear as yours does. The picture below is identical to the one I had including the stool which, which folded, sat on the inside.

 

 

The table, when removed became the front (or top) of the desk for movement. I am pretty sure this design originated in WW2 but it may very well have been after the Korean or even VN war. I was a 1SG in the late 90s. The desk "showed up" whilemy unit was at Fort Benning.

[Bluehawk]

The interior appearance painted (mine was unfinished and had the two little black plastic bottles with screw off caps, in the oval slot of the vertical drawer):

[Bluehawk]

Some other interiors I came across (remember, the SIZE of chest differs, there were 4-5 or so different sizes and configurations of slots):

[sgtbrown]

Bluehawk is right on. To my memory there are two to three different configurations of clerk's table-top desks and two different configurations of chaplain's desks. All are shown (?) in the Army QM catalogs reprinted by NCHS.

 

I believe the stand-alone desk is postwar, but I've been wrong before.

 

Tom

[Johan Willaert]

The one on the left of post 6 is the Desk, Field, Fiber, Company while the one on the right is the Desk, Field, Fiber, Headquarters. The latter is much larger then the Company Field Desk...

There is a thrid model which is called the Chest, Record, Fiber

All of these were WW2 models for Army use and I have no idea if they were made/used for the USMC...

 

Pictures of these are here:

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...mp;#entry737471