How do you get the dirt stains out?  My mom can't clean them because she is hundreds of miles away.  Seriously, these things stain too easily.  What works good to get the damn red clay out?  Nothing works!!  I only have one semi-clean pair and Clothing Sales is out of medium shorts.  

The crotch rips are nice though. It's like air conditioning.

Multicam would have been a better choice


I sent my Brother-in-law a bottle of spray and wash

Try some Spray and Wash, or similar stain remover.

And clay tends to stain just about everything no matter what color or patern.

Well, you could keep those as field ACUs and get yourself a pair of new ones off ebay to replace them.

The stains may help  

woolite. If using a powder, mis a THICK syrup of powdered woolite and water, run vigorously in the stain, let set for 30 minutes, using woolite again, wash as you normally would your ACUs. Remember, NO color brighteners. This method works for me and my ACUs. The wifey says TIDE (w/o bleach) liquid works as well (She cleans my ACUs for me). YMMV

Quoted: Well, you could keep those as field ACUs and get yourself a pair of new ones off ebay to replace them.

Nooooooooooooooo

While SOME ACUs have "fallen off the truck" and ended up on ebay, there are MANY cheap knock offs that are not to Army standards. Buyer beware. Hell, I just CALL AAFES, give them my size, my address and credit card number and they over night them to me, 8 bux shipping, no tax, no drive, no hassle. AAFES is your friend!

Or just get MR, or some other close enough size..If you are wearing them in the field, the fact that they dont fit well and look like crap wont really be an issue.

According to the “Laundering the Army Combat Uniform (ACU)” provided by AAFES: Tide Liquids (all versions), Powders (all versions) and Tablets (all versions) have optical brighteners, which according to the care label in the real ACUs, not the unapproved Chinese copies, are no no for ACUs.  The same AAFES lists Woolite (all versions), as ok.
In the “Questionable Contents (Should Probably Avoid)” section is Spray ‘n Wash.

FYI, AAFES doesn’t say what is approved, but in the “Do Not Contain Brighteners:” section the following are listed: Bold Powder, Cheer Liquid (all versions), Cheer Powder (all versions), All Powder (all versions), Surf Powder (all versions), Woolite (all versions).

Finally, you might want to tell mom or those that you authorize to do your laundry to turn the uniforms inside out.  This supposedly prevents the Velcro from attaching to other items and “prolongs the usefulness of the Velcro” according to AAFES.

My mom…er I mean I use Tide, so I had to buy a special box for myself.

Red clay is a challenge, good luck.

I've been using Woolite (Woolite Dark Laundry for the Green Digitals, regular Woolite for the Deserts) for awhile and have been pleased.  I cold water wash the uniform by itself *, 10 minute damp dry it in the dryer, and then hanger the set to finish drying.

* I do wash my black SmartWool socks and liners with the green digitals, but nothing else. T shirts, jeans and whatever else all go in the regular cold water wash.

Quoted: Fuck that, wear your stains with pride.

Yup, but only to the field of course.  Welcome to an ongoing tradition in the Army.  Buying extra sets of uniforms so that you can wear your nice, unfaded, unripped (but patched), unstained ones in garrison, and the ones that raise an eyebrow from the chain of command just to the field.  When your nice ones get worn, they get transferred to the field duty side of your locker. Unfortunately, since these are the new uniforms, you can't get them cheaply at the local surplus store/flea market where ets ing GI's sold theirs.