Major Fred W. Sloan of the United States Air Force first met Steve Austin at Lackland Air Force Base, and knew that Steve would "end up being one of the moon-shot boys." They were regular tennis partners at the time of Day of the Robot. Oscar recruits Fred's tennis buddy Steve to escort Sloan to the Red Canyon military test site for the final test of the anti-missile missile defense system. En route, Sloan is kidnapped by Dr. Dolenz and replaced with a robot duplicate.