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Family loses home after losing son

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

January 2, 2006 (Elmhurst, IL) (WLS) -- A suburban family is homeless after a candle that was part of a shrine to a soldier killed in Iraq started a house fire. It's the latest in a string of bad fortune for the family.

You will forgive 57-year-old Jesse Alcozer if he is not exactly in the holiday spirit. The Elmhurst man, wounded seven times in Vietnam lost his job in 2004, then last year, his VA benefits were cut 20 percent. It got worse, in November his 21-year-old son Christopher was killed after his army unit was attacked in Mosul, Iraq. At Christopher's funeral, protesters carried a sign that read "thank god for dead soldiers." then two days after Christmas, a candle lit as a shrine to Christopher, sparked a fire that tore through their house.

So on Monday, with the Alcozer's boarded up home as a backdrop, lieutenant governor Pat Quinn urged the community to come to the aid of this now homeless family. Setting up a fund to defray their mounting expenses.

If there is any positive news here at all, it's that when firefighters were battling the blaze, they managed to retrieve the flag that draped Christopher's coffin, and a collection of his military medals.

In addition the lieutenant governor is now sponsoring legislation that would prohibit protests within 300 feet of a military or civilian funeral, and would ban such protests 30 minutes before and after the service. That would ensure that other families would not have to endure the insult to fatal injury like the Alcozer's did."

For more information about how you can help the Alcozer family visit: www.operationhomefront.org

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