A 21-year-old Fort Wainwright soldier from the 172nd Stryker Brigade was killed Saturday while on patrol in Mosul, Iraq, the U.S. Army announced Sunday.
Pvt. Christopher Alcozer, from the Chicago suburb of Villa Park, joined the Army last January and had been stationed at Fort Wainwright since May.
An infantryman, he died of injuries received when his patrol was hit by small-arms fire and hand grenades, the Army reported. Another dozen soldiers in the Alaska brigade were injured, four of them seriously, in the same incident, said Maj. Kirk Gohlke, an Army public affairs officer. The incident occurred at 4 a.m. Saturday, Iraq time, which is 12 hours later than Alaska Standard Time.
Gohlke said no further information was available Sunday about the injured soldiers or about the incident itself.
Alcozer was engaged to be married, said his brother, Adam, 19, reached at the family home in Villa Park. He played the viola in orchestras and had played football and wrestled in high school.
"He fought and died for his country, for the American way of life, and not for the administration," said Adam Alcozer. Christopher Alcozer is also survived by his mother, Kathleen, and brother Patrick, 24. Services have not been scheduled yet, Adam Alcozer said.
Alcozer was the fourth member of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team to die since mid-October.
Staff Sgt. Stephen Sutherland, 33, who was a native of West Deptford, N.J., died from injuries received in a vehicle accident Nov. 11 in Al Qadisiyah, near Rawah in western Iraq.
Army Spc. Daniel D. Bartels, 22, of Huron, S.D., died from a noncombat injury Oct. 19.
Army Spc. Lucas A. Frantz. 22, of Tonganoxie, Kan., was shot by a sniper Oct. 18 during a mission to Mosul. Frantz was the first member of the Stryker Brigade to die in combat since the unit, with 3,800 members, left Alaska this fall.
Daily News reporter Rosemary Shinohara can be reached at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.
