[1] He was born in El Paso, Texas, but grew up in Los Angeles, California, where his father worked as a police officer.

He was commissioned on August 5, 1942, and was posted to the Pacific Theater of Operations where he joined the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, of the Thirteenth Air Force.

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.

[2] At the time of Gene's birth, his father was working as a linesman, but shortly afterward he rode the rails to Los Angeles to seek better employment.

[5] During his childhood, Roddenberry was interested in reading, especially pulp magazines,[6] and was a fan of stories such as John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, and the Skylark series by E. E.

[7] In 1933, when Roddenberry was twelve years old, the family moved to 4906 Monte Vista in the shadow of Mount Washington,[8] and he began attending Luther Burbank Junior High School.

[9] Glen's parents and her younger sister Willodean moved into the house for a time before finding other accommodation in Redondo Beach.

[6] During his time at Franklin, Roddenberry joined the Varsity Debate Team and was a member of the Authors Club under Mrs. Virginia Church.

For the remainder of the summer, he attended Peace Officer training at the University of California, Los Angeles as an Army cadet.

[15] In the days following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roddenberry received a telegram with orders to attend Kelly Air Force Base,[16] enlisting on December 18, 1941.

By virtue of this additional training, and because Roddenberry's height made it unlikely that he would be suitable for a combat fighter pilot, he was assigned to bombers.

He received orders to report to Bellows Field, Oahu, to join the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, of the Thirteenth Air Force.

The squadron flew the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress,[21] which had previously been used by the 19th Bomb Group, and were en route to a maintenance overhaul when they had to flee due to the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.

[23] In January 1943, the squadron was ordered to conduct bombing missions, alternating between bases in Espiritu Santo, Nadi, and Guadalcanal.

The crew was transported on an old Dutch freighter across the Pacific; upon his arrival, and reunion with his wife, his picture was featured in the Los Angeles Times.

[26] Roddenberry spent the remainder of his military career in the United States,[26] and while he did not keep an ongoing record, he estimated that he had flown 89 combat missions.

Following promotion to captain, Roddenberry was reassigned to March Field (situated near Riverside, California) as a plane crash investigator in February 1944.

During this period (characterized by frequent travel throughout the United States), he was in another accident as a passenger on a military flight that crashed and caught fire.

Roddenberry took charge in the aftermath,[36] and, after a group of local tribesmen proved to be of no help, he formed two teams to search for civilization.

[39] On arriving back in Los Angeles, the Roddenberry family lived initially with Gene's parents at 2710 Green Street, Temple City.

[43] As part of Parker's modernization efforts, the newspaper unit became the "Public Information Division" with Captain Stanley Sheldon in charge.

[45] In this new office, he worked alongside Don Ingells, who would go on to create Fantasy Island,[46] and write episodes for Star Trek such as "The Alternative Factor".

[54] Later that year, Captain Sheldon gave Roddenberry an additional position as technical adviser for a new television version of Mr. District Attorney.

[56] He later said, during the production of the second season of Star Trek, that the pseudonym was used after a fortune cookie revealed a message saying: "A change of name will bring you fame.

With Ricardo Montalbán as lead, it was aired two years later as part of an anthology package, with the screenplay again credited to Robert Wesley.

To his surprise, the Chief revealed that he had been intentionally connecting Roddenberry with television professionals for the past few years with the hope that one would offer him a permanent position so that he could pursue his dream of writing.

In his brief letter of resignation, Roddenberry wrote: "I find myself unable to support my family at present on anticipated police salary levels in a manner we consider necessary.

Having spent slightly more than seven years on this job, during all of which fair treatment and enjoyable working conditions were received, this decision is made with considerable and genuine regret.