Hi Flyboy,
it is because the wavelength of the color green is in the middle of the human eye's ability to recognise the spectrum of colors. The sequence is violet - blue - green - yellow - orange - red. Infrared means "below red", ultraviolet means "above violet". It means the wavelength ot infrared is bigger, than that of the red what your eyes still can se, and wavelength of ultraviolet is smaller than that of visible violet. Any of those "scale-edge-colors" have low visibility, that's why G.I.-s have red color handlights. It's not so easily visible from a distance.