military laundry

[franksolich]

I was reading some badly-photocopied financial records earlier today, those kept by the U.S. Army at Fort McPherson, near North Platte, Nebraska, in 1869.

I came across some most curious entries that made me wonder about something.

In this instance, back in 1869, in Nebraska, the U.S. Army had washerwomen on the payroll, one for every nineteen "enlisted men" (no mention of how many for officers).

Such laundrywomen were paid, fed, and housed, although housed far segregated away from quarters for "enlisted men."  One assumes they had to be out of necessity pretty rough women.

Which got me to thinking--who does the military laundry?

I'm assuming that there are no laundromats on base, and it's quite obvious there are no laundromats on the battlefield.

Are dirty clothes shipped out to a central area, cleaned, and then redistributed?

Are dirty uniforms treated differently from ordinary clothes?

Is dirty laundry handled differently now, than it had been during the first and second world wars?

[rich_t]

As to your last question, I am sure it is handled differently now than it was during WWI and WWII.

You may find the answer to some of your other questions here

During Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm and the Liberation of Kuwait, my team did our own laundry in a plastic washbin that I had the forsight to take with us.  I was in a forward deployed area for most of my tour there.
 
I have no idea how the REMFs handled their laundry.  I know my CO and his HQ staff was in the rear with the gear and was eating barbequed chicken and steaks while his troops in forward areas were eating MRE's and K-rats.

[rich_t]

BTW...  Most military bases do have laundromats.  Many barracks even have washers and dryers availible for the troops to use free of charge.

[franksolich]

Okay, sir, I read that governmental document.

But what about, for example, the situation of djones here?

Does he have to send out his dress uniforms and someuch to a dry-cleaner himself, or is there just somewhere on his base where he can drop it off?

[franksolich]

During Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm and the Liberation of Kuwait, my team did our own laundry in a plastic washbin that I had the forsight to take with us.  I was in a forward deployed area for most of my tour there.

But what did you do about your dress uniforms, which I assume have to be kept clean and neat and pressed?  Surely you didn't carry them along with you in battle.

When dress uniform was required, did you have to go to some central location to get it?

[rich_t]

Okay, sir, I read that governmental document.

But what about, for example, the situation of djones here?

Does he have to send out his dress uniforms and someuch to a dry-cleaner himself, or is there just somewhere on his base where he can drop it off?

I can't speak about djones situation.  I can only tell you what I did.  When it came to dress uniforms I would take them to a "contracted" drycleaner/tailor right there on the base and have the cleaning and alterations done.  I paid for it out of pocket, but when I was enlisted all service members were given an annual allowance to pay for uniform replacements and such.

[rich_t]

But what did you do about your dress uniforms, which I assume have to be kept clean and neat and pressed?  Surely you didn't carry them along with you in battle.

When dress uniform was required, did you have to go to some central location to get it?

I was never in a position to need a dress uniform while in a combat area.  Keep in mind that I was enlisted.  I'm not sure how the generals and other senior staff handled their dress uniforms.

I never saw a general or senior actually wearing one in theather during my combat tour in 90-91.

I know I sent two of my soldiers to the E-5 selection board during our tour.  This type of board typically requires one to show up in the dress uniform.  But the army knows that isn't always possible.  They were boarded wearing clean and pressed dessert cammo and boots.

[franksolich]

Oh.

I was under the impression that BOTH enlisted and officers had dress uniforms, besides their battlefield attire.

I'm no clothier expert, but of veterans around here in the Sandhills, I noticed they've tended to save a uniform or two from their military service, and those uniforms look like dress uniforms to me, even though these guys were allegedly "only" grunts.

They look sharper than most suits I see, including three-piece pinstriped ones.

I just naturally assumed these were some sort of dress uniform.

[dutch508]

Let's see, where to start...

In the field there are bath and laundry companies located in secured places. There was one at Taji, Iraq at the main US Base there. You took your stuff in and they washed it, free. It was about a two day turn around. We used to go over to the American base and use it- until they said it was only from their brigade, then we just switched patches.

There was also two Iraqi laundries on post- same concept- two dollars to drop off and wash.

Further up towards the 'front', we had a old 'iraqi' washer looking like something from 1960s East Germany. It did about half a load of wash at a time, and you had to pour the water in for both wash and rinse cycles. We simply hung our wash out on a line to dry.

Before we got the washer we did it by hand in a 55 gallon drum. We used washing soap we got from home, or bought from the Iraqis.

Very similar to what we did in Afghanistan early in the war(s). You'd wear a uniform for a couple of days- weeks, and then change it out with what you ahd if you were out in the bush- washed it yourself if back on the FOB. Laundry companies had just started showing up when I was evac'ed.

On military bases across the world GIs wash their laundry in machines in the barracks. Dress uniforms were taken to the dry cleaners on base- usually Koreans.

Enlisted do have dress uniforms, Frank- but they don't have to own them.

There are:

1. Combat uniforms, ACUs, BDUs, Pickle Suits-what were once fatigues, HBTs, or the like. This is the daily work uniform for most.

2. Dress Greens [class As](what you see in movies) consisting of a suit of green, with a lighter green shirt and black tie.
2.a Class Bs are the shirt and slacks only. A slightly less dressy uniform for office work.

3. Dress Blues. A Dark Blue jacket with Light Blue trousers. Worn with a white shirt and black tie. This is the uniform for formal occasions- worn by those who walk the tomb of the unknown soldier.
The Army is in the process of getting rid of the greens and turning the blues into the new class As.

4. Mess Dress. One step above Dress Blues. Very Formal uniform. Short Mess Jacket with Blue trousers. Also in White Mess for occasions for White tie and tails- almost no-one has this.

Any other questions, Frank?

[franksolich]

Any other questions, Frank?

Lots of them, actually.

You see, it's the ordinary little things that are most fascinating.

I suppose I had always assumed the general procedure was that when one had a dirty uniform--working uniform, not dress uniform--he just turned it in at some central collection point and got issued a clean uniform, either a brand-new one or one used but laundered.

As for underclothing, socks, and stuff, I just assumed one hand-washed those things in his overturned helmet.

The logistics of getting all this done must be impressive.

[TxRadioguy]

Okay, sir, I read that governmental document.

But what about, for example, the situation of djones here?

Does he have to send out his dress uniforms and someuch to a dry-cleaner himself, or is there just somewhere on his base where he can drop it off?

We have dry cleaners on post where we can drop stuff off at.  Same thing for AF Bases.

[franksolich]

Okay now, what if the dry cleaner messes up, and sends djones the wrong dress uniform, and he needs to wear a dress uniform at some sort of event within the next hour?

Is that a demerit for djones?

We all know the military can be rather strict at times.

[Thor]

On ships, we threw all of our laundry in a big departmental laundry bag, sorted by darks or whites. A couple of days later, those clothing items were returned, somewhat "clean". The ships also have a dry cleaners on board, part of the ship's laundry. They only allow so many items per month and uniforms have priority.  When I lived in the barracks, we had washers and dryers that were available on a first come, first served basis. We had to provide our own laundry soap, softener, bleach, etc. During Desert Shield/ Storm, we had some UAE folks contracted to do our laundry. There again, it was a two or three day turnaround. Sailors are required to maintain a seabag consisting of so many work uniforms, (4, I think), so many dress uniforms, and then so many office type work uniforms. Typically, most senior Sailors maintained more uniforms than was required. The Navy kind of sucked when it came to uniforms, especially the dressier types. Some were "required" while ashore, but not allowed while onboard a ship because they were made of flammable materials.

I don't know about the Air Force, but I've had sailors get screwed by the dry cleaners. In most cases, they were excused from inspections or events. Mind you, it CAN'T happen often. Even so, I'm sure that MOST professional Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, & Marines have at LEAST one extra set of dress uniforms. At one point, I had 5 sets of dress uniforms for summer and winter, each. (I was on Recruiting Duty at the time)

[franksolich]

Any other questions, Frank?

Thank you, Thor, for the illumination about the Navy.

This one's for dutch508 and TxRadioGuy, in the Army, in combat situations.

Wouldn't it just be easier to have something like a haberdashery-on-wheels, traveling just behind the front lines, exchanging clean combat uniforms for dirty ones, and then sending the dirty ones far behind the front lines to be cleaned and mended if needed?

If I had thought about this before yesterday, I guess this is what I would have speculated is done, although apparently not.

[NHSparky]

Thor is correct for the larger commands in that you might get your stuff back in some sembalance of cleanliness and they in fact had designated folks for such stuff.  However, being on a submarine where space of any kind is at a premium, it was rare that anyone aside from topside watches or other visible folks brought more than a set of whites/darks and dress uniforms, including "working" uniforms such as dungarees inport and "poopysuits", aka coveralls, underway.

Basically, I would go on a deployment with the following:

--Dress Blues
--Dress Whites
--2 "white hats"
--3 pairs dungarees (shirts and pants)
--3 poopy suits
--2 changes civilian clothes
--socks, t-shirts, skivvies (6-8 of each)
--shoes for underway (great thing about boats, you can wear tennis shoes underway) and inport (boots/dress shoes)
--ONE set of PT gear (aka, shorts)

A typical submarine has ONE washing machine, and ONE dryer.  Each division on the boat has designated times at which they can wash clothes.  If you don't do yours, you could always ask a buddy to hook you up as long as you didn't abuse it and returned the favor when he needed his laundry done.

As far as dress uniforms went, we pretty much had the tailor/drycleaning shop at the Exchanges, and that was IT.  Nobody there to do dress uniforms for us underway, which is why nobody brought much of anything.  Typically, we'd leave on Westpac wearing one dress uniform, and come back wearing the other dress uniform, and that was about it.