At Last She Gets It Off Her Hands

--Diane Atkins and Howard J. Hill had never met, but for 17 years they shared a very special bond. Hill was an Air Force first lieutenant on Dec. 16, 1967, when the tail of his Phantom F-4D was blown off over Hanoi by a North Vietnamese MIG-27. He ejected and parachuted into the arms of North Vietnamese soldiers. Atkins was a 22-year-old engineering technician in Lynn, Mass., when she contributed to a POW relief fund in 1969 and received a bracelet bearing Hill’s name. She wore it for years, but eventually consigned the bracelet to her jewelry box. She never forgot about Hill. “I always thought, ‘My God, I hope he’s OK.’ ” Then, on May 29, Atkins saw Hill being interviewed on ABC’s “20/20.” Hill, who was released in 1973, is now a colonel and senior adviser on POW and MIA affairs for the secretary of defense. Atkins contacted Hill through the Pentagon, and last weekend, at a ceremony in Hill’s honor at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Lynn, they met for the first time. “For 17 years, I’ve had this bracelet, and for 17 years I hoped and I prayed and I waited, and tonight’s the night I can give this bracelet back,” Atkins said. “It’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever been able to do.”

--Next year’s graduates of Howell High School in Howell, Mich., will get a little something extra with their sheepskins: a warranty. “Employers will be notified in writing that, should they hire a Howell graduate and find that he or she lacks the basic skills in reading, spelling, writing and arithmetic needed to perform satisfactorily on the job, we’ll take the graduate back,” said school board President William Kelly. School Supt. David Johnson said the warranty is an attempt to provide diplomas that mean something. “We don’t know of anyone else doing this--it shows our faith in our graduates,” said Lois Lang, a spokeswoman for the 5,400-student school district. About 430 students are expected to graduate in 1987.

--Joe Marquez is hot stuff--and he’s got the tears and the taste buds to prove it. Marquez, 33, survived eight heats, beating out 70 other contestants, to take first place in the Pecos Valley Chili Pepper Eating Contest in Roswell, N.M. In the final round he downed seven jalapeno peppers in 30 seconds. The rules called for chewing each pepper five times before swallowing it. Spitting any out meant immediate disqualification. Each contestant was required to sign a release absolving the sponsors of responsibility for any subsequent medical difficulties. All this for a chance to win $200.