Field Desk, Command Post Tent, Operation Double Eagle, 1966 (16949470180)

A field desk is a

portable desk {{unreferenced, date=January 2008 The portable desk had many forms and is an ancestor of the portable computer, the modern laptop an atavistic grandchild of the 19th-century lap desk. Medieval era and Renaissance All desks were portable to some ...

which is meant to be used in rear areas near a battlefield and moved around rather frequently in difficult conditions. It is in contrast to the

campaign desk A campaign desk is an antique desk of normal size which was used by officers and their staffs in rear areas during a military campaign. The campaign desk was usually the private property of the officer, as was his uniform and other military impl ...

, which is usually heavier and meant for areas further in the rear. The field desk is both an antique and a modern

desk A desk or bureau is a piece of furniture with a flat table (furniture), table-style work surface used in a school, office, home or the like for academic, professional or domestic activities such as reading (activity), reading, writing, or using ...

form. The antique form is usually made of fine woods and

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

fittings. The smaller versions can often be confused with the civilian

writing slope Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute ...

. This is quite understandable, because during the 18th and 19th centuries they were often used interchangeably. There is a wide variety of antique field desks, ranging from small suitcase-sized ones to fairly big chests, like the one general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson used during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Until recently, General Jackson's desk was exhibited in the museum of the

Virginia Military Institute la, Consilio et Animis (on seal) , mottoeng = "In peace a glorious asset, In war a tower of strength""By courage and wisdom" (on seal) , established = , type = Public senior military college , accreditation = SACS , endowment = $696.8 mill ...

(VMI). At one point, VMI gave a licence to a furniture manufacturer to produce copies of the desk, available on the web. The field desk was a civil war officers "office in a box." This portable, upright desk has a drop-down front used for a writing surface. The most common modern field desk is made of resistant plastic composites and

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

. It is built to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

standards or to the standards of national armies. There are several variants, but the most common one is a nearly cubic chest whose lid is removed to expose internal drawers and then reattached on the side to serve as a desktop.

See also