He worked as an engineering officer in the Merchant Marine for several years. Because of the nature of work scheduling, he had a great deal of free time on his hands and became a volunteer with a county fire department near Austin, Texas. He ended up spending seven years as a volunteer firefighter/EMT and eventually left as a Lieutenant of a rescue company that specialized in vehicle extrication, swiftwater and high-angle rescue. He also changed his engineering path to more shoreside pursuits and became the Director of Engineering for Doubletree Hotels and then Director of Property Operations for Hilton.

In 1998, his wife was offered a position at a university in southern California. They moved to Los Angeles and Roland decided to embark on a completely different career path. He became a Los Angeles police officer. He earned a MS Criminal Justice and worked a variety of assignments including detectives, air support, and investigation of officer-involved shootings but the majority of his career was spent in patrol.

Since the Navy did not decide to support his love of aviation, he saved up money and earned his private pilot certificate while living in Austin. After they lost our youngest son to cancer in 2011, Roland took a few months off from work and discovered the SoCal Wing of the Commemorative Air Force and has been a member ever since.

Roland considers it an honor to work alongside many dedicated members of the SoCal Wing and in large part due to their encouragement and mentorship, he gained more flight experience and now holds an Airline Transport Pilot certificate. He has had the good fortune to fly 27 different aircraft models. His favorites include many SoCal Wing planes such as the PT-19, SNJ, and the B-25. He retired from the police department as a Lieutenant after 22 years of service and went to work as an airline pilot.