Ep. 1 | Bird Box SGT Taylor Figueroa & 1LT Christian Falk

4/7/2024

Hi everyone,

I recently started recording my podcast “Beyond The Ranks.” On my show, I speak with a wide variety of current and former Service Members about themselves and current issues.

A few months ago, I kicked things off by chatting with 1LT Christian Falk and SGT Taylor Figueroa of the 82nd Airborne Division. They teamed up to build Bird Box, which is a product they built to win last year’s Innovation Drop Zone competition hosted by the 82nd Airborne Division.

Bird Box is a weather-resistant, 3D-printed container designed to enhance dismounted TSM capabilities for Airborne operations (I like to think of it as a hoistable, Mophie charging case for ghost radios).

Bird Box houses an 875D (Ghost Radio) and a 5590 battery, extending the radio's life up to 24 hours (from 4 hours).

Engineered for tree slinging (up to 150’ high) to support retransmission sites, it ensures continuous command and control on the battlefield, elevating operational efficiency without breaking the mesh network.

I think it’s important to highlight their accomplishment to spread the word to other units who may have interest in Bird Box and to encourage other Service Members to innovate products of their own. 

If you’re part of a unit interested in learning more about Bird Box, I’m happy to broker an intro to 1LT Falk and SGT Figueroa. Alternatively, feel free to reach out to them directly.

And if you think you fall into my target audience, please give my Beyond The Ranks page a follow.