Lots of military training seems to get participants even dirtier than the kids in detergent advertisements – how do military personnel manage all this washing and ironing to get them looking immaculate again? How do their machines cope with all the grime?
I have clothes that, no matter what, will never get shiny white again – do militaries just throw this sort of stuff away knowing it’ll never be appropriate for the parade ground again?
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Industrial washing machines are something else…I used to work oilfield, one of the few places that’s probably consistently dirtier than military (along with mining). Those things are to your home washing machine like a main battle tank is to a VW beetle. They are *far* larger, *far* more powerful, *far* hotter, and basically come with their own infrastructure (heaters, filters, reclamation, industrial detergents, etc.). They will demolish delicate clothing (I had one cook the soles right off a pair of sneakers), which is partly why military clothing has to be super durable.
Formal uniforms are just that…formal. Don’t get them dirty. Dry-clean. Iron. Carefully store until needed for the next formal thing. Not for day-to-day use.
Dirt and grime actually isn’t particularly difficult to clean for even just a home washing machine, in fact thats what your laundry soap is meant to clean and whisk away, dirt, grime and such.
The difficult stuff to clean is things that heavily stain, such as blood, oil, and wine. Dirt is easy
Second, battle uniforms are more like your workout and everyday clothes, they aren’t your formal or even semi-formal sorta “business casual” or parade uniforms. Military members tend to have a bunch of different uniforms for different occasions, and 3-5 sets of their daily wear (such as fatigues)
We have multiple uniforms. Some only get worn to the field, while others are set aside for wearing in garrison. Once you’re out of boot camp, you know full well which days you’re going to be “in the office” and which days you’re going to be “playing in the mud.” It isn’t uncommon for military personnel to have four or five field uniforms that are basically just “wash and wear” and four or five daily “in the office” uniforms, and we *never* cross wear.
We also keep them separate because a *lot* of normal laundry chemicals (the soaps fabric softeners, etc.) tend to cause problems for the field uniforms. Depending on the time period, office uniforms were dry-cleaned and starched, which made them stick out like a sore thumb when using night vision goggles (starched uniforms reflected IR light like a goddam mirror). Modern uniforms are often treated with antimicrobial and flame-retardant chemicals which have to be laundered a specific way to preserve the treatments, too.
So we keep track of which is which and don’t mix them up.
Short answer: don’t get mud and blood on your good uniform.
I’m serving military. I wash my uniform with a regular home washing machine in my house. If its caked in mud, I’d let it dry, beat the big parts off, and I wouldn’t load it in until I’ve hand washed the worse of it off in a sink with a brush. That said, most uniforms don’t hold huge amounts of heavy dirt in them.
But you keep a set of “good” uniform in base, that never goes anywhere dirty. That’s what you wear on parade. Then you have a set or two of “everyday” uniforms that are presentable but not perfect for normal work, and other sets that are reserved for field use only. As a set gets more worn out you downgrade them to dirtier and dirtier jobs. The army basically just factors in a fairly high turnover rate for uniforms and you exchange your worn out stuff regularly
Also, coveralls are a thing, and if your doing dirty work your expected to use them.
All of the above, plus one more trick: for particularly nasty uniforms (think dirt, mud, sand, but also weeks worth of BO) that you’d rather not subject your washer or the air inside your house to, soak them in a plastic bin with OxyClean for a bit before bringing them inside.
Gets the big stuff off and makes them smell at least nice enough to not knock someone out.
When I went through basic in Benning fir Infantry in 88, we just had a room full of washer/dryers next to our starship, and you had a laundry bag. Usually you would take turns with your battle buddy, and tpyou or they woukd throw your bags in the wash then dryer. They were really well at getting rid of sand and the orange GA clay out if your uniforms.
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