Life Support Makes Sure Pilots are Ready for the Unthinkable: INCIRLIK AB, Turkey — Staff Sgt. Anthony Figueroa pulls out a practically weightless vacuum-packed sleeping bag, complete with snow boots. When Figueroa hears someone suggest that a pair of mukluks may not be a pilot’s top priority when he’s flying from Turkey into northern Iraq, Figueroa looks a little hurt. His view is, “You never know.” An easy-going man with a quick mind, Figueroa comes off as the kind of guy you’d bet on to return from remote enemy territory. He makes the unthinkable — what it would mean to eject from a fighter plane over northern Iraq — more tolerable and sometimes funny. Figueroa, with the 90th Life Support Squadron, is in charge of both the flight equipment pilots use every day, and the equipment every pilot hopes he never needs during Operation Northern Watch.