Ping for the list.
When I was in Vietnam,we had a mama-san do it.
ping
There are laundromats on base, and where they have access to do laundry, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen do their own laundry and ironing (or their poor wives do).
Signed,
Former Army daughter and former Marine wife
It’s a function of the Quartermaster Corps.
They have what’s called the Quartermaster Laundry in the Army.
Send out on laundry day and get last week’s back. Payroll deduction for the service.
Military bases have laundromats. I used the military provided facility. Even the personal stuff came out starched to the dickens...
The Quartermaster Corps has “field laundry units” located in the rear areas that are relatively secure. They get the dirt out is the best way to put it.
The Marines coming back onto the ship from the field had some funky laundry. You do it however you have too. A lot of times over seas I had a local person do it. I buck or two to wash a bag a laundry is a good deal. I didn't have to do it, and the local economy got a buck or two.
Usually in the field we just stunk real bad. Baby wipes are a soldiers best friend in the field.
We sailors had it easy; drop it into the laundry bin in our living compartment and it would come back clean and folded on our rack two days later. For the dress blues, we could take them down to the ship’s dry cleaner and pick them up next day.
I'm not surprised that these records were badly photocopied. The photocopy machines they used in 1869 must have been difficult to operate.
In the military after the Civil War, the woman who performed the laundry duties were often as not wives of the enlisted personnel. In most instances they also did the laundry for the officers, unless an officer had a wife on post willing to do it for him.
If a post didn’t have sufficient enlisted men’s wives on post, then they’d have to contract out, or detail enlisted personnel to do the chore. The second option would be the most likely. The military back then spent money very grudgingly. (Even in the 1870’s they were still issuing hard tack made during the Civil War...)
In the field, all bets were off and the men, officers included became pretty “gamy” unless camped by sufficient water.
In the Navy we stuck our whites in one bag, our colors in a different bag and put them in the passageway. After three days they came back all in one bag and all the same color.
When the desert tan flight suits got washed with the red T-shirts, the resulting pink flight suits were really manly.
These days the US doesn’t hire any more laundry ladies or mama-sans. Our politicians get the military to award huge contracts for laundry, latrines, etc to their buddies at KBR for $100/load. We should just go back to the old way and find some mama-sans in Iraq to do our laundry for $2. Or at least help the Iraqi mama-sans bid on laundry contracts!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/17/eveningnews/main636644.shtml
“Documents obtained by CBS News show an auditor repeatedly flagged improper fees for soldiers’ laundry. At one site, taxpayers reportedly paid $100 for each 15-pound load of wash - $1 million a month in overcharges.”
“Halliburton insists it doesn’t waste money, it saves it. But overcharging is the subject of one federal investigation and there are separate probes for alleged bribery and kickbacks. “
There is indeed a free-of-charge post laundry, but it's typically only used by soldiers in school, such as Basic Training, the various NCO academies, etc. Here's the Army's laundry slip.
When you're in the field for less than 6-8 weeks, you generally don't do laundry. One uniform is usually good for about two weeks before it gets too rank to wear, assuming you change your undies (if used), t-shirt, and socks every day.
When you're deployed at a more permanent facility, the Army will generally contract out some locals to do laundry. In Bosnia we had several Bosnian women who worked on my base camp, and they washed and dried your clothes at no cost to the soldier. They were paid by the Army. You could tip them some and they'd iron your uniforms for you if you desired.
In more austere deployment environments, there's the LADS - Laundry Advanced System, which uses 400 gallons of water/day compared to the old M85 laundry unit which would use 8,000 gallons per day. Oh, and the LADS has four times the capacity of the M85. There's actually soldiers whose specific job in the Army is to run the laundry. It's the 92S, Shower / Laundry and Clothing Repair Specialist.
Whew.
Every floor in the barracks has a laundry room.
Not sure for other branches, but when I was in the AF from 1987-94 we did our own, even on deployment (if facilities were available).
when I was in IRAQ, on of the duties was laundry detail. We would employ the local iraqi women do it, and the base commander would pay them with Iraqi dinars. We would pick them up at the gate and take them back to a building that was full of washers and dryers. The duty entailed you watching/guarding them while they did your laundry. At the end of the day you took them back to the gate they went home and the next day we would start the process all over again.....
Some of us also used the washers...then let them hang to dry. 130 in the shade they dry rather fast!
In Iraq/Afghanstan it is KBR.