DATE: Monday, May 19, 1997                  TAG: 9705190033

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Correspondent Jane Harper researched and wrote this report. 

                                            LENGTH:   61 lines

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO. . . DANIEL DIEHL

In 1986, when he was just 8, Daniel Diehl's world was ripped apart. His parents had been charged with murdering one of the 17 children they were raising in a yellow bus at a campground in Sandbridge in Virginia Beach. Daniel was one of the couple's four biological children; the other 13, including the one who was fatally beaten, were adopted.

Daniel Diehl has survived the ordeal surprisingly well.

Now 19, Diehl is about to finish his second year as a cadet at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.

And he is doing more than just surviving at the rigorous training academy. He's been on the dean's list for academic excellence two of his three semesters, on the commandant's list for military excellence two of the three, and on the athletics honor list once. This fall he will be one of nine cadets the academy has selected to attend West Point for a semester as part of an exchange program between the military academies. And this summer Diehl will spend three weeks working as a glider-pilot instructor at the Air Force Academy and another three weeks at an Air Force base in Alaska.

He'll get only about three weeks to himself this summer, and he'll spend it with his foster parents, Jim and Candy Southern, at their home on Manteo Island, N.C.

While his training at the academy has been tough, especially during the first year, Diehl said he has no regrets about his first year at the academy.

``I would never want to repeat it, that's for sure. Believe me, there was more than once when I thought about not staying here. But the feeling after you've done it is great. You feel really proud.''

Diehl is majoring in biology and is classified as a pre-med student, but his real goal is to become a pilot. He won't find out whether he is qualified for pilot training until about three months before he is scheduled to graduate, in spring 1999. While he considers his pre-med studies as more of a ``back-up plan,'' he said he would like to attend medical school someday.

Diehl has lost touch with most of his brothers and sisters, who were scattered among various foster homes after their parents were imprisoned. He still keeps in touch with one brother, who is also in the Air Force. His relationship with his parents has been distant since their arrests and convictions. His mother, Karen, was paroled in 1993 from a 31-year prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter. His father, Michael, is still serving a 41-year sentence for murder at the correctional center in Augusta County, Va. A Department of Corrections spokesman, David Botkins, said his first parole hearing was in 1994 and his mandatory-release date is January 2008.

Daniel Diehl says he has made some good friends at the academy and keeps in touch with many of his friends from Manteo.

``I get a lot of respect from my friends. They know I have a real feeling of security because I know what I'm going to be doing when I graduate. Most college students have no idea what they're going to do.'' MEMO: Whatever Happened To. . . appears every Monday, and we welcome

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Harper. ILLUSTRATION: Eleven years ago, Daniel Diehl lived through tragedy.

Today he's a standout at the Air Force Academy.

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