By Catherine M. Welch
Wilmington, NC – A North Carolina National Guard soldier was killed over the weekend during an attack near Baghdad that also wounded 14 other soldiers in his unit.
The North Carolina National Guard says Staff Sgt. Emanuel Pickett and other soldiers in the 1132nd Military Police Company were hit during mortar or rocket attacks on their base.
Nine North Carolina soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Pickett was a police officer in the Duplin County town of Wallace. He joined the National Guard in 1992.
Sgt. Michael Harrell served with Pickett in 2004. He says he wishes he had been able to see Pickett at home with his family.
"Because if he was caring as adamant with his children as he was with his soldier family, which I'm sure he was, I would have like to have met that father figure that Emanuel Pickett was all about."
Pickett is survived by his parents and two children.
Staff Sgt. Emanuel Pickett was 34-years-old.