The Shelter Half was a coffeehouse in Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...

, from 1968 to 1974. Like its namesake, a Shelter-half

Shelter-half

In UK and Australia, a shelter-half, also known as a "dog-tent" or "pup-tent", is a simple kind of tent designed to provide temporary shelter and/or concealment. Two sheets of canvas or a similar material are fastened together with snaps, straps or buttons to form a larger surface...

 is a simple tent to provide shelter, the Shelter Half's purpose was to provide a place for GIs at Fort Lewis

Fort Lewis

Joint Base Lewis-McChord is a United States military facility located south-southwest of Tacoma, Washington. The facility is under the jurisdiction of the United States Army Joint Base Garrison, Joint Base Lewis-McChord....

 military base in Washington State to resist the war in Vietnam. The GIs turned The Shelter Half into an anti-war headquarters, publishing underground anti-war newspapers, organizing boycotts, and leading peace marches.

External links

http://www.coffeestrong.org/ The Coffee Strong

Coffee Strong

Coffee Strong is a GI coffeehouse based on the tradition of resistance coffee houses opened during the Vietnam war by antiwar veterans and active duty soldiers. Based in Lakewood, WA it was founded in 2008 by veterans returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its located within 300 meters of...

coffeehouse is currently operated by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the Fort Lewis / McChord AFB / Tacoma area.

• archived publications of The Shelter Half on SirNoSir.org.