Tampa Bay Honors Slain Soldiers Freeman and Estelle (Brandon Photos)

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office this week has been, and will be, engaged in two “fallen hero” escorts for soldiers slain in Afghanistan.

The May 4 escort for Marine Lance Cpl. Ronald Freeman, 25, a Plant City High School graduate and young father, rode through the streets of Greater Brandon en route to a church in Thonotosassa. Freeman died in Afghanistan on April 26.

This gallery of photographs is from that escort, as residents paid their respects for the Plant City High School graduate and young father along Brandon Boulevard and Kingsway Road.

The May 6 escort is for Air Force Maj. Raymond G. Estelle II of New Haven, Conn., who died in Afghanistan a day later, April 27, and was set to be transferred to the Tampa Bay area with his wife, 9-year-old daughter and 1-month-old son.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office will run the escort for Estelle from the MacDill Air Force  Base in Tampa to the Ray Williams Funeral Home on North Howard Avenue.

The escort is set to start at 12:45 p.m.

Greater Brandon residents are encouraged to support the escort as it leaves the Bayshore Gate of the MacDill Air Force Base and travels:

• North on Bayshore Boulevard,
• East on Platt Street Bridge,
• North on Florida Avenue,
• East on Jackson Street,
• North on North Jefferson Street,
• West on Twiggs Street,
• South on Ashley Drive,
• West on Kennedy Boulevard, and ending at
• Ray Williams Funeral Home, 301 North Howard Ave.

RELATED COVERAGE: