The Shelter Half was a GI Coffeehouse that operated at 5437 South Tacoma Way, in Tacoma, Washington, United States, from 1968 to 1974.
[1] Named after a military tent called a Shelter-half, the coffeehouse's purpose was to provide a place for GIs at Fort Lewis military base in Washington State to resist the war in Vietnam.
The Shelter Half served as an anti-war headquarters, publishing underground anti-war newspapers, organizing boycotts, connecting civilian activists with local GIs, and leading peace marches.
[2][3][4] In November 1969, the Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board prevented military personnel from attending the coffeehouse by placing it on a list of off-limits places.
[5][6] The Shelter Half closed in the summer of 1974.