DATE: Thursday, November 27, 1997           TAG: 9711270671

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   41 lines

AIR FORCE ACADEMY STUDENT IS THE MASTER OF HIS OWN FUTURE

Congressman Owen B. Pickett received a heartfelt thanks Wednesday from a junior at the Air Force Academy whose life story so far is short but inspiring.

Daniel C. Diehl was once a child made famous by the misdeeds of his parents who in 1986 were raising 17 children - 13 of them adopted - in a converted yellow school bus at a Sandbridge campground.

The family - Diehl has three biological siblings - was torn apart when one of the adopted children was beaten to death. His mother and father were convicted and imprisoned. Karen Diehl was paroled in 1993 and her husband, Michael, is still serving a 41-year sentence for murder. The horror story that emerged in court captured the attention of the region for months.

Fast forward to today and Diehl appears as a man who not only has survived his past but overcome it. A dean's list student who has been recognized for his military and athletic excellence, Diehl is planning on becoming a B-1 pilot. Barring that, he'd like to be a physician.

A 1995 graduate of Manteo High School, Diehl is currently on a small recruiting tour where he addresses high school children interested in an Air Force career. The program is called ``Grass Roots'' and its purpose is to inform students what life at the Air Force's academy in Colorado is like.

Unlike many colleges, the Air Force Academy provides one of the more rigorous educations of any four-year institution. Most graduates emerge with degrees in science and engineering.

Diehl looks back on his troubled upbringing with the calm and ease of someone who appears to have mastered his fate. He said he is aware of it but does not let the past guide his future.

He returned to Virginia Beach to say thanks to Pickett who nominated him for the prestigious school.

``I just never had a chance to properly thank him,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Despite a troubled upbringing, Daniel C. Diehl is a dean's list

student at the Air Force Academy.

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