Howdy,
A ground rod at your home is something that you pound into the ground, and it stays there forever. end of story. If you have ever driven a full 8ft ground into the ground, you would understand that you just are not simply pulling it out. Well, at least here in Virginia with a red clay type soil.
One of my favorite ways to “re-adjust” an errant solder, was ground rods. Lots of NCOs and Officers normally take the Article 15, (non-judicial punishment) route to punish a soldier for minor infractions against the military’s rules. An old First Sargent friend of mine, when I was a young upcoming junior NCO, told me to think very hard before going the Art.15 route. It can destroy a young, promising soldier’s carrier. It’s an NCOs job to take care of minor problems. Giving a soldier an Art.15 was the lazy man’s way to pass the buck on a disciplinary problem, he told me. An Art.15 can take away rank, money and free time of a soldier, as well as kill his chances of remaining in the military, if they should so choose. Ground rods were a better way.
When I had a problem child, we would attempt to solve the problem with counseling. When that didn’t bring results, I would call my wife, and tell her I might not be home tonight.
I would get a bundle of ground rods. The bundle consisted of 8 each ground rods. Single piece, 6 foot rods. At 17:00, I would inform my problem child, that we were going to have some “extra training”. When everyone had left work, we would go out back. Problem child with the bundle of rods and several sledge hammers, and I with my folding lawn chair. I would instruct problem child on the proper way to emplace a 6 foot ground rod. Then problem child would start to emplace ground rods, while I observed and supervised. Our missile site was on a Stone Mountain top. Driving a rod in, approx. 5 foot and 8 inches could take an hour, or more, if you chose a bad spot to do it. There were not many good spots up there.
After problem child had driven the all the rods, (and broken several sledge hammers) it was very late at night. I always had a Coleman lantern for this kind of thing. Problem child was by that time, “tuckered out”. After a few minutes of rest, I would tell Problem child that all these ground rods were a safety hazard. In the dark, someone could trip over them during a crew drill, and get hurt. So it was necessary to remove them.
It was normally about time to start a new day at work when all the rods were finally removed. I never, ever, had to do more than one “Extra training” session with a young soldier. They could have stopped at any time. Or refused to do so. But then we would have gone the Art.15 route. Not one of them ever did.
Lest you think that I am a mean and nasty old man, my old First Sargent friend had me fill 500 sand bags. Three separate times, before he re-adjusted my attitude. I hated empting them out the next morning. That was the worst part.
