MilCom Founders Podcast, Episode 59: Building the LOD Cart with Juan Ortega
Join host Rod Loges and Juan Ortega, a staff sergeant and air transportation specialist in the Air National Guard who invented a new way to safely offload heavy cargo from military aircraft when no ground equipment exists.
In this episode
- Juan’s path from driving the latrine service truck (call sign: Fleet Five) to becoming an air transportation specialist stationed in Alaska
- The cargo problem nobody had solved: safely getting an 8,500-pound shipping container off a C-17 when there’s nothing on the ground to help
- How three people on a phone call and a napkin drawing became the LOD Cart
- Spending a year with Texas A&M engineering students to translate what he knew as an operator into engineering language
- September 2025 in Cold Bay, Alaska: every other option had been ruled out, and the LOD Cart worked
- The government shutdown that killed his funding and what he did next
- Paying his own way to a startup conference in San Francisco and getting honest feedback that his pitch needed serious work
- Going through a 14-week Founders Institute cohort and then winning funding to build version two
Key takeaways
- The “heartbeat” method: updating your stakeholders every week keeps a project alive; stop updating and it dies
- Fifteen minutes of innovation per day is enough to move a project forward while keeping up with your day job
- Building a community of people who are ready to help you is more valuable than collecting contacts
- When your pitch gets torn apart, that’s the most useful feedback you’ll get
- Leadership trusted Juan because he was the subject matter expert first, a trained instructor on the existing method
- If you have an idea, write it down and take it to your supervisor; just start the conversation
- The military shows you the problem; building a company around that solution is a set of skills you have to go learn
Guest
Juan Ortega, Staff Sergeant, Air National Guard; Creator, LOD Cart (Logistical Operations Device)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-ortega-9025b4210/
Website: https://www.ortegasolution.net/
Juan Ortega is an Air Force logistics professional, innovator, and emerging founder with more than ten years of experience in air transportation and austere logistics operations. He leads the Logistics Operations Device, better known as the LOD Cart, an effort created to address the challenge of safely offloading large and fragile cargo when conventional infrastructure and equipment are unavailable. Juan has worked with Arctic Spark, Founder Institute, and a growing network of mentors and operational partners to move the concept from a field observation to an engineered and funded prototype. In September 2025, the LOD Cart supported the successful offload of an 8,500-pound shipping container in Cold Bay, Alaska. His work focuses on ownership, mentorship, translating operator experience for technical and executive audiences, and using established frameworks to move ideas from operational problems toward repeatable capabilities. The views he shares are his own and do not represent an official endorsement by the Department of Defense or Department of the Air Force.
Looking ahead
Juan and his team are in the design phase for version two of the LOD Cart, a two-cart system with delivery expected by the end of March 2027.
The MilCom Founders Podcast champions and celebrates military community business founders. Each episode features real stories and practical insights from veteran entrepreneurs.
Sponsored by One Degree Financial www.onedegreefinancial.com
For each guest on our show, One Degree Financial donates $100 to the Dick Loges Veteran Entrepreneur Scholarship Fund, supporting education for children of a MilCom business owner.