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This past week while watching Mail Call on the History Channel I noted the US Military is replacing the shelter half tent with somethingnew. In use practicaly since the civil war the, the shelter half tent (when set up looks like a pup tent) consists of two sections of canvas joined with buttons along the ridge line. Each section is 1/2 the tent or shelter and each section also includes two end panels. The tent (which is floorless and not waterproof0 is supported with two wooden poles at each end along with guy lines and the sides and ends are stacked. Each soldier carried 1/2 part of the tent.

When I lived in Illinois and was a cub scout this was the tent that we used except that we called it a lean to. Moving to Arizona in 67 my dad decided to buy my camping/hiking gear from a surplus store. Among the items that he bought me was the shelter half tent (complete). It saw use for a number of years before retired.

Do you know what they are replacing it with?

Personel Combat Shelter Tent by Eureka. I have the Eureka Equildome 6 and the BackCountry One tent which looks similar to the new Personel Combat Shelter Tent.

I remember the shelter half. Last time I used them was the summer of '96 at Camp Navajo. Each Marine was issued a shelter half, three wooden poles about a foot long that you would put together to make one pole, guide line, and five stakes. Heavy stuff to carry around, tight squeezing in and not much comfortable. More often than not, we would leave that behind in favor of setting up a lean-to with ponchos, or just sleeping on the ground with or without our bags. I remember on Okinawa I would just roll in a mosquito net and fall asleep on the ground.

Having been forced by the US Army to schlep a shelter half around throughout infantry basic training and AIT, I can assure you that the shelter half sucks.

I'll take a poncho hooch over the shelter half any day. Where's my woobie?

Been using the poncho as a shelter, a lot more waterproof and quite a bit lighter than the shelter half.

I'm really fond of the poncho with tie-in liner folded over as a sleeping bag. Lightwieght, warm, and comfortable.

The new issue sleeping bag comes with a FANTASTIC (yes, they actualy got something right) Gortex bivy sack. Beats the poncho in ease of set up and you can't even compare it to the old shelter half.

Has it made it into the aftermarket? In other words, can you go somewhere and buy this bivy? Or is it just now still GI?

j

It's out there but it costs and arm and a leg. Check E-Bay for a used one to avoid sticker shock as the sleep system the bivy is a part of runs just under $500 from places like Ranger Joes or Brigade QM. I haven't seen the bivy sold sperately from either of those stores as well.

I purchased the ICS from Eureka and used it last week. The design is quite similar to the BackCountry one tent. You can set the ground tarp and fly only or the tent with or without the fly. Eureka was not awarded the bid for the replacement to the shelter half.