 In the movie adaptation, he is explicitly described as a civilian test pilot (although also a former astronaut).For the television series, Austin's career was changed to match that of the books, and he was given the rank of colonel in the US Air Force.Despite the changes made to the character for television, when authors such as Mike Jahn and Evan Richards were commissioned to write novelizations based upon "Six Million Dollar Man" episodes, they chose to follow Caidin's original model of the character, which on at least one occasion (the adaptation of "Love Song For Tanya" contained within Jahn's book, "International Incidents") resulted in the ending of an episode being changed (in the episode, the villain is apprehended by Austin and arrested; in the book, Austin simply fires his poison dart gun at him and kills him).