I have been a member of this forum for quite a while. I only started a new account for more anonymity. I understand the effective ground-fault path per NEC art. 250. I am a civilian providing support for the military and I am in leadership role. I was trying to devolp some sort of test for the men to implement while doing preventative maintenace because explaining it simply is not working. I have workers from many different countrys. It also is not possible to verify the endless web of cables and the grounds inside of them. I have no way to tell if that ground wire goes to a useless ground rod or back to the system neutral as required. We are limited in materials and we often have to use what we have. Our cables rarely have a fifth wire in them so we use "external" ground (bond) wires.
Petersonra, I use the term ground(ing), generally. I have no idea why we refer to EGC's as grounds, but we do. Isn't NEC 250 titled "GROUNDING" when, in fact, it encompasses grounding and bonding.