KILLEEN, Texas — The Killeen community is full of unsung heroes, like Tamara Tom — a U.S. Army veteran and Record Specialist for the Killeen Police Department.
She may be a neighbor now, but her story begins in a small of less than 5,000 people called Holbrook in Arizona.
”It was very hard — very, very hard,” Tom said.
“A lot of people out there do not have running water, electricity, no close in range where Walmart is right next door — the gas station was miles away, so it was very hard.”
She grew up in the Navajo Nation and holds her Native American roots close to her heart, but she also wanted more than the simple Holbrook life.
That's where the Army comes in.
“It was something that my mom wanted me to do — growing up, not very much in our family have military backgrounds except my uncles, so it was a recommendation for me and my little sister and when she passed it was like, let's make that dream come true — so we enlisted," Tom said.
She spent a little more than four years as a mechanic working on Bradley Fighting Vehicles for the Army.
Now, she continues to serve her community as a records keeper for the Killeen Police Department.
”We pretty much handle anycrash reports, any reports that an officer generates in the last 24 hours, and what it basically does, is it comes to our records department, and we process it and send it out to wherever it needs to go,” Tom said.
It’s a vital job that her manager says she is perfect for.
“Since she started, she’s been very easy to work with because she catches on quickly to everything, she pays attention to detail — which is something i always look for with the amount of paperwork we have to revise on a daily basis.”
Tom says she knows how important her work is and does the job with the same dedication she had working on Bradleys for the Army.
