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10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Frederick Atwater.md
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---
created: 2026-05-17
updated: 2026-09-21
updated: 2026-10-09
title: Frederick Atwater
aliases:
- Frederick Atwater
@ -32,7 +32,9 @@ Atwater joined the U.S. Army and completed officer candidate school and military
Atwater discovered files left by a predecessor suggesting that remote viewing might constitute a security vulnerability - if Soviet remote viewers could perceive U.S. classified installations, the Army needed to understand the threat. He proposed to Colonel [[Robert Keenan]], head of SED, that a small team of Army intelligence personnel be screened and assembled to test remote viewing from the inside. The proposal was approved by Major General [[Edmund Thompson]], the Army's assistant chief of staff for intelligence.
Atwater and commanding officer Major [[Murray Watt]] visited SRI to learn how to screen candidates for remote viewing ability. They identified artistic talent, visual-spatial intelligence, and creativity as associated markers and recruited six initial Army personnel: [[Joe McMoneagle]], [[Mel Riley]], Ken Bell, Nancy Stern, Fernand Gauvin, and Hartleigh Trent. The program launched under the code name Gondola Wish as an experimental part-time unit.
Atwater and commanding officer Major [[Murray Watt]] visited SRI to learn how to screen candidates for remote viewing ability. They identified artistic talent, visual-spatial intelligence, and creativity as associated markers and recruited six initial Army personnel: [[Joe McMoneagle]], [[Mel Riley]], Ken Bell, Nancy Stern, Fernand Gauvin, and Hartleigh Trent. The six were selected under the Army's [[Grill Flame]] program, an experimental part-time unit, in late 1978 and early 1979; the chronology states "Of the 251 personnel considered for GRILL FLAME, 117 were interviewed and six individuals were actually selected for training," and records the six INSCOM personnel beginning training at SRI in April 1979.[^1] The code name [[Gondola Wish]] belonged to an earlier plan of the 902d Military Intelligence Group to train three personnel at the Monroe Institute.[^2]
As a second lieutenant in the 902d Military Intelligence Group's CI Studies Section, Atwater signed memoranda of May 18 and July 31, 1978 as project officer of the group's Gondola Wish plan to train personnel at the Monroe Institute, which the Army staff cancelled on September 25, 1978.[^2][^3] On February 21, 1979 he was named as Watt's alternate on the Grill Flame committee roster.[^4]
### Operations Officer
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### The Documents
Frederick H. Atwater, known as Skip, was a lieutenant in the Special Security Detachment of the 902d Military Intelligence Group at Fort Meade when INSCOM began its remote-viewing project in October 1978. The project manager, Major Murray Watt, reported in February 1979 that "the initial concern of the Project Manager (PM) was to develop a full understanding of parapsychology and the various aspects of the phenomena. Towards this end, the PM has been greatly assisted by Lieutenant Frederick H. Atwater. LT Atwater, although assigned to the Special Security Detachment, 902d MI Group, was attached to the GRILL FLAME project because of previous research into this area during work on a separate project." Watt and Atwater "were busy preparing a method that would help them select the INSCOM personnel who would volunteer for participation," considering 251 and interviewing 117, and on January 12, 1979, the two visited the [[Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity]] at [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]], which was running its own tests of the SRI protocol.[^1]
Frederick H. Atwater, known as Skip, was a lieutenant in the Special Security Detachment of the 902d Military Intelligence Group at Fort Meade when INSCOM began its remote-viewing project in October 1978. The project manager, Major Murray Watt, reported in February 1979 that "the initial concern of the Project Manager (PM) was to develop a full understanding of parapsychology and the various aspects of the phenomena. Towards this end, the PM has been greatly assisted by Lieutenant Frederick H. Atwater. LT Atwater, although assigned to the Special Security Detachment, 902d MI Group, was attached to the GRILL FLAME project because of previous research into this area during work on a separate project." Watt and Atwater "were busy preparing a method that would help them select the INSCOM personnel who would volunteer for participation," considering 251 and interviewing 117, and on January 12, 1979, the two visited the [[Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity]] at [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]], which was running its own tests of the SRI protocol.[^5]
He remained the unit's operations officer through Grill Flame and [[Center Lane]]. INSCOM's chronology records, under a date read as July 7 or August 1983, "CPT Frederick Atwater assumes duties as Acting Project Manager," between Lieutenant Colonel Robert Jachim's departure and Lieutenant Colonel Brian Buzby's arrival on August 15. Published accounts by participants credit him with recruiting the first six viewers, among them Joe McMoneagle and Mel Riley, and with the unit's training in [[Robert Monroe]]'s Hemi-Sync method, which the Center Lane briefing dates to the end of 1980. After retiring from the Army in 1988 he became research director of the Monroe Institute's laboratory and, in 2006, its president, and was a founder and president of the International Remote Viewing Association.[^1][^2][^3]
He remained the unit's operations officer through Grill Flame and [[Center Lane]]. INSCOM's chronology records, under July 7, 1983, "CPT Frederick Atwater assumes duties as Acting Project Manager," and under August 15, 1983, that Lieutenant Colonel Brian Buzby assumed duties as project manager.[^1] Published accounts by participants credit him with recruiting the first six viewers, among them Joe McMoneagle and Mel Riley, and with the unit's training in [[Robert Monroe]]'s Hemi-Sync method, which the Center Lane briefing dates to the end of 1980. After retiring from the Army in 1988 he became research director of the Monroe Institute's laboratory and, in 2006, its president, and was a founder and president of the International Remote Viewing Association.[^5][^6][^7]
### Footnotes
[^1]: US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "INSCOM Project Grill Flame: Progress Report #1," February 21, 1979, with enclosures, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100070001-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "List of Events from September 1977 to January 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100020001-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "Briefing - Project Center Lane," c. 1984, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100180002-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: Monroe Institute and International Remote Viewing Association biographical notices, and Atwater, F. Holmes. *Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul.* Hampton Roads, 2001; McMoneagle, Joseph. *The Stargate Chronicles.* Hampton Roads, 2002.
[^1]: US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "List of Events from September 1977 to January 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100020001-8 and the attachment to CIA-RDP96-00788R001500180001-7, cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001500180001-7.pdf.
[^2]: 902d Military Intelligence Group, memorandum for Chief, OPSEC Support Division, "GONDOLA WISH (U)," May 18, 1978, signed Frederick H. Atwater, 2LT, MI, CI Studies Section, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000160007-7, cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R002000160007-7.pdf.
[^3]: 902d Military Intelligence Group, "Attendance at Scientific Seminar in Support of GONDOLA WISH (U)," July 31, 1978, signed Frederick H. Atwater, Project Officer, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000160013-0, cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R002000160013-0.pdf.
[^4]: Memorandum for record, "Minutes of the Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 14 Feb 79," with the representatives roster as enclosure 1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130002-5, cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130002-5.pdf.
[^5]: US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "INSCOM Project Grill Flame: Progress Report #1," February 21, 1979, with enclosures, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100070001-3. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^6]: US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "List of Events from September 1977 to January 1986," CIA-RDP96-00788R001100020001-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. US Army Intelligence and Security Command, "Briefing - Project Center Lane," c. 1984, CIA-RDP96-00789R002100180002-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^7]: Monroe Institute and International Remote Viewing Association biographical notices, and Atwater, F. Holmes. *Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul.* Hampton Roads, 2001; McMoneagle, Joseph. *The Stargate Chronicles.* Hampton Roads, 2002.