Mike Bortolotti was accompanied by his daughter, Jennifer Flanagan, on a Stars and Stripes Honor Flight in September. (Courtesy of Stars and Stripes Honor Flight)

 

The back of every jacket that a veteran receives on the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight says “Every Day Is a Bonus.”

For Mequon’s Mike Bortolotti, who took the Milwaukee-based Honor Flight to our nation’s memorials in Washington, D.C., in September with more than 100 fellow veterans, that phrase needs a partial revision.

“I thank God every day for this day. I take every day as another gift,” said Bortolotti, who served in the Marines in Vietnam from September 1966 to August 1968.

Bortolotti received a 16-hour firehose of gratitude during his Honor Flight.

“It was so overwhelming,” said Bortolotti, who attends Holy Family, Whitefish Bay. “I felt so humble.”

A Messmer High School graduate, Bortolotti said he always felt a sense of honor and duty that stemmed from his faith.

“The three most important things are my God, my family and my country. Even in school, the nuns pushed the importance of that,” Bortolotti said. “Entering the Marines was just an extension of that.”

Serving as an executive chef, he was not immune to experiencing the horrors of war, especially in the loss of a close friend in 1968 that led to a powerful encounter moment midway through his Honor Flight.

“I saw Brian’s name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the black stone in Washington. I touched his name,” Bortolotti said, adding that he continues to pray for his friend at Mass on Sundays. “I just hope he’s at peace.”

Bortolotti’s gratitude-filled day of a lifetime began at 6 a.m. at Mitchell International Airport when Honor Flight volunteers warmly greeted him and continued with countless continual greetings of thanks from strangers in Washington as well as a “mail call” of thank you notes on the flight home.

It ended with a special homecoming at Mitchell.

“All the guys with the flags and saluting you, you think, ‘Wow, these people, 9:30 at night, they came out to greet a bunch of old guys that they never met.’ The little kids that are running up to you saying, ‘Thank you for your service.’ It just makes you feel so proud.”

Finally, at 11:30 p.m., Bortolotti took to his bedtime prayer, exhausted and exuberant.

“I never got tired enough not to thank God for that day,” he said. “The mission was completed. We’re done. You can put it to rest.”