Thank you for unlocking the thread.
Yes, I was there. August - December 1975.
http://members.aol.com/cbjpegs/SF_Dip.jpg
It was just the Camp Mackall SF obstacle course then, before it had a name.
And I didn’t recall anything there that would have required a helmet, other than a possible free fall from perhaps 20 feet in the air from some of the high structures, or a bonk on the head from some WWII era tunnels that went under a road.
Not "the last hard course syndrome " rather, plastic hockey helmets struck me as too PC, too artifical.
Part of the SF course consisted of obstacles that are by design intended to test confidence by presenting the candidate with items that appear to more difficult to master than they truly are. Hockey helmets, in my opinion, defeat the purpose of the course by providing reassurance that no harm can befall you.
For example, in SERE training it was difficult to appreciate the true horror that could be dished out to a POW. Yes, the cadre could shout at us, we did endless pushups (like we haven’t done that before), and denied sleep and food. But inside, we knew it was an Army school, just training according to a published SERE POI, and they really aren’t going to break your arms or drill through your muscles with an electric drill. So an SF student can demonstrate fortitude and resistance because he “knows” in the back of his mind the threat is a facade.
To a lesser extent, the old obstacle course—with rows of concertina wire under the obstacles – was a real shock to those of us who had negotiated mud pits (Basic/AIT/NCO school), sawdust pits (Ranger), and water filled pits (Infantry OCS). If you slipped or fell, it was into the “thorn bush” of barbed wire. (By the way, it was barbed wire, not razor wire). It wouldn’t kill you, just scratch and cut a bit as you high-stepped out. It had a psychological impact well in excess of the physical threat. At other obstacle courses on other posts you could laugh and simply decide to take a harmless dive into the water if you didn’t feel like digging in and gutting out the obstacle.
Camp Mackall didn’t give you that option.