Johns left Softly, Softly for good in 1972, but returned for a further series of Barlow at Large in the following year, Barlow having gone on full-time secondment to the Home Office.
As vicar of Avondale, Auckland from 1968 to 1971, he gained further experience through secondment to Egglescliffe on Teesside in the United Kingdom as an industrial chaplain.
He also undertook a secondment to the U.S. State Department under then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
On July 16, 2013, the Canadian Space Agency assigned Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen to a secondment with the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration of the University of Western Ontario at Haughton Crater in preparation for a potential future manned exploration of Mars, the Moon or the asteroids.
In 1966, he served on secondment in the 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment and was posted to Sarawak, Malaysia, during Indonesia's "Konfrontasi" against Malaysia.
He then commenced his more academic career as UNESCO-IBM Professor of Information Technology ate Southampton University on secondment from IBM, a progression which has continued to the present.
His service with 1RAR included an attachment to the Rifle Company Butterworth, in Malaysia while his service with the SAS included a two-year secondment to the headquarters commanding the British Special Air Service and the Special Boat Service.
On secondment from his radio job, he produced one short play called Ending It, an adaptation of one of his own short stories starring John Robinson and Joan Marion, transmitted on 25 August 1939.