Michael Giovo Sr.'s brush with greatness began with a tap on his foot.
It was April 1993. United States forces were in Mogadishu, Somalia, on a mission that began as famine relief but later gave rise to the battle chronicled in a 1999 book and a 2001 movie, both titled "Black Hawk Down."
Giovo said he was a U.S. Air Force technical sergeant and commander of a 13-man team charged with overnight security duties at the Mogadishu airport. He recalled being asleep in his tent one day when he felt someone tap his foot.
"He asked me to get up," Giovo recalled. "I said, 'Whaddaya want?' Then I saw all those stars."
The visitor was U.S. Army Gen. Colin Powell, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and later secretary of state. Giovo said Powell had just arrived and needed security for a ride from the airport to a downtown command center.
BIO
Name: Michael Giovo Sr.Age: 65Branch of military: U.S. Air ForceYears of service: 1975-1995
"Gen. Powell asked me to get my team together and take him in; we rode together in my Humvee," said Giovo, who added that Powell's death last month was "a great loss for our country."
"He was a man's man and a breath of fresh air," said Giovo, who also recalled a separate instance involving a Somali boy's request for a $1 bill.
"He offered some of his money in exchange," Giovo said. "He left and was gone about 10 minutes.
"When he returned, he gave me a U.S. $100 bill. I asked him where he got it, and he said his father had a box full of them. I asked him to bring me the box, but he said he couldn't because that was what his family used to start fires at home, for heating and cooking," Giovo said.
Unfortunately, those remarkable memories aren't all that's stuck with Giovo, a Florida native who retired in 1995 after 20 years' active duty. He said he's struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder for more than 40 years and was formally diagnosed with chronic PTSD just two years ago.
(Photo by Mark Gilliland) United States Air Force Veteran Michael Giovo at his home in Trenton, Georgia on October 25, 2021, holds a photo of his family. (left to right), daughter Amanda, wife Peggy, Michael and son Michael Jr. Giovo was diagnosed PTSD."I take four different mental-health meds," he said. "One's supposed to help me sleep, but I have nightmares. I also have meds for panic attacks and anxiety attacks."
Giovo said that after he left active duty, he spent a decade at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He said working there, helping veterans struggling with PTSD and other issues, spurred him to finally seek help himself.
"A lot of veterans won't discuss it," he said. "Some find it easier to suppress PTSD than to open that door and acknowledge it, but the only way to get better is to hit it head-on - I see a therapist every month and a psychiatrist every three months."
Giovo keeps those appointments in Chattanooga, not too far from the Trenton, Georgia, home he shares with his service dog, a boxer/pit bull mix named Casey. He said his life these days can be summed up in a single word.
"Solitude," he said. "I can't work, and I don't like crowds - though having [Casey] increases my ability to get out."
But Giovo said his life is scheduled to get a lot less solitary next spring.
"I just bought a home adjacent to my property," he said. "My daughter and her three kids are going to move up here at the end of the school year.
"I'm looking forward to that," he said.
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(Photo by Mark Gilliland) United States Air Force Veteran Michael Giovo at his home in Trenton, Georgia on October 25, 2021. Giovo sits with his service dog Casey. Giovo was diagnosed PTSD.