Pfc. Salem Ezz had just started working with a new Army innovation lab on Fort Stewart when his fellow soldiers returning from deployments began discovering black mold in their barracks.

Soldiers were posting pictures and videos of the mold that had infiltrated their barracks on social media pages like  “Army W.T.F!” and TikTok. “That made it explode,” Ezz said. 

Pictures showed barracks’ ceilings and walls taken over by black rings of mold. The fungus lined air vents and spread to troops’ uniforms and furniture.

“It’s below what most people outside the military would consider a standard that they would want their soldiers living in,” Ezz  said of the barracks conditions.