Army Staff Sgt. Emanuel Pickett

Died April 6, 2008 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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34, of Teachey, N.C.; assigned to the 1132nd Military Police Company, North Carolina Army National Guard, Rocky Mount, N.C.; died April 6 in Baghdad of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked with indirect fire.

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N.C. Guardsman dies, 14 wounded in Iraq attack

The Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina National Guard soldier died in an attack on a military police base in Baghdad, and 14 other soldiers assigned to the unit were injured, the military said Tuesday.

Staff Sgt. Emanuel Pickett, 34, of Wallace, died Sunday after the mortar or rocket attack, said guard spokesman Maj. Matt Handley. A police officer in Wallace, he was assigned to the 1132nd Military Police Company in Rocky Mount. The company mobilized in June and deployed with 120 soldiers to Iraq in September. The unit is scheduled to return home this fall, Handley said.

Handley said the wounded included nine soldiers from the North Carolina National Guard and five from New Hampshire who were attached to the company.

Pickett is the eighth North Carolina National Guard soldier killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Handley said the last time as many guard members were hit in an attack was when two soldiers were killed and seven wounded in 2004.

Pickett joined the National Guard in 1992 as a telecommunications operator and later was a chemical operations specialist. He deployed to Iraq in 2004 with the National Guard’s 30th Brigade Combat Team and became a military police officer in 2006.

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Army Staff Sgt. Emanuel Pickett remembered

The Associated Press

In civilian life, Emanuel Pickett was a police captain. In his 13 years with the Wallace Police Department, he began a crime watch in his neighborhood, helped start a program to mentor fatherless kids and coached youth basketball.

After his death, even people whom he sent to prison turned up at his parents’ door.

Pickett, 34, of Wallace, N.C., was killed April 6 in Baghdad by indirect fire. He was assigned to Rocky Mount and was on his second tour in Iraq.

“He would always be there for me, encouraging me,” said his sister, Vivian Pickett. “When he went to Iraq both times he called back and told our dad to help me out with whatever I needed. I will always miss his smile.”

He joined the National Guard in 1992 as a telecommunications operator and later was a chemical operations specialist. He deployed to Iraq in 2004 and became a military police officer in 2006.

“Everybody that knew him will miss him,” said Wallace Town Manager Ken Cornatzer. “He was very intelligent, very professional and a very focused individual.”

He is survived by a son, Emanuel, and two daughters, Fantazhia Pickett and Timberly Rivenbark.