The Panhandle Chapter of the American Legion Riders, Chapter 43 will hold their annual Gold Star Remembrance Run this year on Saturday, September 23. Each year, the riders stop at a cemetery to honor a fallen hero.This year’s honored hero will be Richard Allen Estrada, buried at Oregon Trail Memorial Park Cemetery west of Bridgeport. Estrada was killed in action during the Vietnam War in 1968.
Estrada was born in Bridgeport to Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin and Rose Estrada on August 2, 1947. According to an April 18, 1968, story that ran in the Bridgeport News-Blade, Estrada graduated from Bridgeport High School in 1965.While attending school, he was active in athletics, and in 1963, won a 50-mile marathon race held at Scottsbluff.
At the start of his senior year at Bridgeport, Estrada’s family was making plans to move out of state. He wanted to stay and finish high school, so he and his high school sweetheart, Bonnie L. Marshall of Northport, eloped on September 21, 1964, to Idaho Falls, Idaho.They returned and rented a tiny apartment on the alley behind what is now Subway.
