 Once a civilian, he began to fly long-haul routes for Pan American World Airways. He was involved in a further crash in June 1947, where the Clipper Eclipse crashed in the Syrian desert. After pulling injured passengers out of the burning plane, he led the party which sought help. After a further incident, he resigned from Pan-Am, seeking to write for television instead. However, he joined the Los Angeles Police Department, initially in the traffic division but transferred to the newspaper unit where he worked with Chief William H. Parker as a speech writer. He landed the role of technical adviser for a television version of Mr. District Attorney, which led to him writing scripts for the series under the pseudonym of "Robert Wesley". This led to a series of collaborations with Ziv Television Programs, and he resigned from the police on June 7, 1956, in order to take up a writing position on the staff of The West Point Story.
