STEVE LEWIS/Durango Herald

”Out here, I brought Jared out for his very first flight,” said Mary Thompson of Durango before greeting her son, U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 4, Jared Thompson, after he and a crew landed at the Durango-La Plata County Airport Saturday afternoon aboard a Sikorsky HH-60 Blackhawk helicopter. Thompson, who serves with the 2nd Battalion, 501st Aviation Regiment out of Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, was in town briefly for a fuel stop before flying to the High Altitude ARNG Aviation Training Site in Gypsum. Thompson was 18 when his mother arranged his first flight at the Durango-La Plata County Airport, Mary Thompson said.