Amarillo Native Valerie Salazar Earns Award from the US Navy

It's always great to hear when an Amarillo native is succeeding outside of their hometown. What's even better is when they are doing great things in the US Military.

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It is a personal sacrifice to make the decision to join the military, you are taking on the responsibility of protecting a nation and its people. It's an honor to hear about our Amarillo natives doing big things in our country's military.

Amarillo's Valerie Salazar is making waves in the US Navy. She is a Seaman Recruit in Division 937. Part of her reason for joining the Navy is to bring honor to her family.

“I want to travel, make a name for myself and bring honor to my family,” said Salazar. “I want to see what beautiful places the Navy will take me and experience new cultures. I am the first female in my family to join the military.”

She recently graduated as a top sailer from the Recruit Training Command. She also earned the Military Excellence Award.

“It is definitely a great way to start a new path in my Navy career by setting my base,” said Salazar. “I will continue to build up from that. It gave me confidence and proved hard work really does pay off even if you can’t see the other side of the mountain.”

What is the Military Excellence Award?

The Navy Club of the United States Military Excellence Award is the top award presented to the recruit who best exemplifies the qualities of enthusiasm, devotion to duty, military bearing, and teamwork. The award places her at the pinnacle of today’s newest sailors. Salazar is awarded a flag letter of commendation as part of her recognition.

Seaman Salazar's assignment is as an Aviation Boatswain Mate (Handling), and she will be attending a school in Pensacola, Florida to learn how to be an Aviation Boatswain Mate (Handling). As an Aviation Boatswain Mate (Handling), Salazar will be directing the movement and spotting aircraft ashore and afloat. They also do crash rescue, firefighting, crash removal, and damage control.

Seaman Salazar graduated from Caprock High School in 2023, where she was a member of the National Honor Society and took part in track and cross country.

We wish her the best of luck in her Naval Career and thank you Seaman Salazar for your service to our country.

Google Answers the Top 10 Questions About Amarillo

I love Google. It can literally answer ANYTHING you need it to answer. Whether it's right or wrong is a totally different question.

Recently, I found myself wondering about something and went to Google. And that's when I started noticing the "people also asked..." section and BOY...Some of them made perfect sense, some of them were interesting, and one of them was downright baffling...and it was a top 10 question which is even more absurd.

So let's see what we've got. Here's the top 10 questions as asked to Google about Amarillo.

Downtown Amarillo Over The Years

Downtown Amarillo has seen an incredible metamorphosis. Take a look at the photos below to see just how much it's changed--you won't believe the difference.