BY MELANIE CREAMER

The Portland Press Herald

Teresa Getchell waited 38 years, four months and one week to see for herself that her husband, Air Force Lt. Col. Paul Getchell, had indeed died instantly when the two-man B-57B Canberra bomber he was co-piloting crashed into a mountainside in Laos on Jan. 13, 1969.

Five years ago, the military identified his remains using DNA analysis. Getchell, who devoted nearly half of her life to finding her husband, will finally join him.

She died last week after a short illness. She was 75. Her family is making arrangements to bury her ashes with his remains in Arlington National Cemetery this summer.

“This will close the final chapter in her life,” her son, Greg Getchell, of Portland, said on Friday. “She is with my father now. She waited a long time for that.”

The Getchells met at Camp Gregory, a summer camp in Gray. She was the camp nurse and he worked in maintenance.

In 1961, they were married at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas, and began raising a family there.

In 1968, Capt. Paul Getchell left on a six month assignment to navigate B-57B Canberra warplanes on secret bombing runs in Laos out of the Phan Rang Air Base in Vietnam. His plane vanished on Jan. 13, 1969. The next day, two Air Force officers appeared at the front door of the family’s home in Buzzard’s Bay, Mass. to deliver the devastating news.

For nearly half of her life, Getchell searched for the truth about what happened that fateful day. Fueled by her love for her husband, she became involved in the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. She was a tireless advocate for families of missing soldiers and prisoners of war.

Getchell served as state coordinator for Maine and Massachusetts. She marched in countless parades to raise awareness for the cause. She attended Legislative hearings in Washington, D.C. For nearly four decades, she wore a bracelet engraved with her husband’s name and the date he went missing.

Getchell’s son, who was 4 years old at the time, said his mother dedicated her life to finding him. Their daughter, Karen Getchell, of Portland, was 3 years old when he disappeared.

“She was a special woman,” her son said. “She felt that she owed it to my dad and to us kids to find out what happened to him. She remained faithful to my father.”

Getchell never remarried. She worked at Mercy Hospital in the pulmonary department for about ten years. In the late 1970s, she taught nursing at St. Joseph’s College and later worked as an assistant teacher at Longfellow School.

Greg Getchell said she also served as a volunteer nurse in Haiti. He said his mother had a strong faith and a passion for helping others and she supported dozens of local and national causes.

“She believed in giving back,” he said.

Barbara Kokalari, her younger sister from Connecticut, said reminisced last week about the trips they took together to Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Disney Land.

“Teresa was a lot of fun to be with,” she said. “I always had a good time with her.”

Getchell had a passion for golf and enjoyed playing bridge. She was also an avid runner and participated in several half-marathons. She regularly walked around Back Cove in Portland.

Kokalari also emphasized how much her family loved her.

“She was the heart of this family for a long time,” her sister said. “I’ll miss her. She had a strong, positive presence in my life.

“Teresa was an extremely good person. She was so good to everyone. She was always there for people when they needed her.”

About five years ago, her prayers were answered when military officials identified her husband’s remains from the crash site. In May of 2007, she and her son and daughter laid him to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Getchell’s ashes will be divided into thirds, with part joing her husband’s remains in Arlington National Cemetery. The rest will be scattered at Camp Gregory and laid to rest at Calvary Cemetery in South Portland, where her husband has a plaque and her parents are buried.

“This is just another example of her wanting to be close to family,” her son said. “If there’s a silver lining in all this, it’s that she is not suffering any more and that she’s with my father.”

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