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created updated title aliases tags category summary start location relations
2025-01-06 2026-10-05 United States Army Intelligence and Security Command
United States Army Intelligence and Security Command
U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command
USAINSCOM
INSCOM
US Army INSCOM
Organization
Military
ArmyIntelligence
SignalsIntelligence
GrillFlame
CenterLane
RemoteViewing
FortMeade
U.S. Government The Army intelligence command formed in 1977 from the Army Security Agency and Army Intelligence Agency; it ran the Army remote viewing unit as Gondola Wish, Grill Flame and Center Lane until 1985. 1977-10-01 Arlington Hall Station, Virginia (1977 to 1989); Fort Belvoir, Virginia (from 1989)
type with reverse role start fn
head_of William Rolya true first commanding general 1977 2
type with reverse role start end fn
head_of Albert Stubblebine true commanding general during the Grill Flame transfer to INSCOM and the Center Lane years 1981 1984 11
type with role start end fn
funded Stanford Research Institute orientation and Coordinate Remote Viewing training contracts ($75,000 in 1979; $190,000 in 1981; $36,000 and a November 15, 1983 contract in 1983) 1979 1984 17
type with role start end fn
funded Monroe Institute Gateway seminars, a consultant agreement with Robert Monroe, and the Rapid Acquisition Personnel Training seminar 1983 1984 17

The United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) was activated in 1977 by combining the Army Security Agency, a signals intelligence and signals security organization headquartered at Arlington Hall Station, Virginia, with the Army Intelligence Agency, a counterintelligence and human intelligence organization based at Fort Meade, Maryland, and several intelligence production units. Its first commanding general was Major General William Rolya, who had commanded the Army Security Agency.12 INSCOM headquarters remained at Arlington Hall until it moved to Fort Belvoir in 1989.1 INSCOM carried Army personnel working at the NSA on the rolls of its CONUS MI Group and 902d MI Group, and kept an INSCOM liaison officer at the agency.3

Gondola Wish and the establishment of Grill Flame

INSCOM's own chronology of its parapsychology work begins in September 1977, when the 902d Military Intelligence Group (the INSCOM counterintelligence and operations security unit at Fort Meade) established a project nicknamed GONDOLA WISH, described as an operations security support mission designed to "mimic" hostile remote viewers "to determine US vulnerability."4 Between April and July 1978 the group contacted Robert Monroe, executive director of the Monroe Institute (then the Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences) of Faber, Virginia, about what the institute could provide to the project.4

A Department of the Army message of July 5, 1978 (entered in the chronology under July 13, 1978) from the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) ordered that all Army parapsychology and remote viewing research, experiments and applications be protected under the unclassified nickname GRILL FLAME, and stated that the Army's interest in the field was itself classified.45 In October 1978 the ACSI, Major General Edmund Thompson, tasked INSCOM to develop a parapsychology program. The command's later chronology records that INSCOM headquarters "never received written tasking on this subject" and that the commanding general and the ACSI had agreed on the concept of Army involvement orally.4 On October 27, 1978 Major Murray Watt was appointed Grill Flame project manager.4

A 902d MI Group memorandum of September 26, 1978 records that the group had been told through General Rolya to stop planning its Monroe Institute training concept. According to the memorandum, a Colonel Capps of the ACSI's office related that Gondola Wish had been cancelled for two reasons: the Monroe Institute was not cleared for classified training, and the training could be categorized as experimenting with the human mind, which under recent legislation would have to be cleared through an office at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command held an existing contract with Stanford Research Institute that was not so encumbered, and ACSI and INSCOM proposed adding training to it. Rolya approved $50,000 of INSCOM year-end funds, and a total of $65,000 ($15,000 from ACSI) went to the command for the purpose.6

Selection and training of the first viewers

Between December 1978 and January 1979, 251 INSCOM personnel in the Baltimore and Washington area, drawn from signals, imagery and human intelligence units, were considered for the project. One hundred seventeen were interviewed under the guise of an attitude survey on parapsychology in intelligence; 110 of them had favorable opinions, one refused to discuss the subject, three thought it nonsense or trickery and three objected on religious grounds. Candidates who showed "unreasonable enthusiasm" and those described in the paper as "occult fanatics" and "mystical zealots" were not selected. The profile of a good subject (open-minded, adventurous, "artistic," articulate, able to "in-flow" data) was supplied by SRI, whose staff told INSCOM that no definite profile had been established. Fifteen prime candidates were identified, and the chronology records that six were selected for training.47

Orientation training at SRI International began in April 1979, and the first operational remote viewing session took place on September 4, 1979, when a missing A-6E aircraft was reportedly located within a 15 nautical mile radius of its downed position.4 In early 1980 the command psychologist tested the participants with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the California Psychological Inventory, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and four other instruments, found the group emotionally stable with "a tendency toward artistic, aesthetic, and cultural interests," and built an "INSCOM Factor Questionnaire" for screening later recruits.7 The first Grill Flame operative attended a Gateway seminar at the Monroe Institute in September 1980.4

Human use review

The Army General Counsel advised on February 15, 1979 that the project constituted testing on human subjects. The Surgeon General's Human Subjects Research Review Board concluded on March 26, 1979 that it was technology transfer and not human use, then reversed itself on November 20, 1979, finding that remote viewing did constitute human use and recommending credible review procedures. The Under Secretary of the Army approved continuation in April 1980, and a March 1980 INSCOM command group sheet sought approval to establish a quarterly Human Use Review Committee for the project.48 The Army General Counsel determined that the intelligence application of "psychoenergetics" fell under Department of Defense regulation 5240.1-R on experimentation involving human subjects, so that ultimate approval rested with the Secretary of the Army.9

Control of the program and the 1981 transfer

A Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee was appointed by Under Secretary of the Army Walter LaBerge in June 1979 and enlarged in July 1979 at the suggestion of Dr. Ruth Davis to review the entire Department of Defense posture. Chaired by Manfred Gale, it reported in December 1979 and recommended that operationally oriented remote viewing "aimed at determining the empirical value of RV to intelligence should continue."9 The Defense Intelligence Agency held overall Department of Defense responsibility for psychoenergetic activity from 1978 until September 30, 1982.9

In August 1980 General Rolya wrote to the ACSI that INSCOM's requirements would now be met by a proposed fiscal 1981 DIA contract with SRI covering audio analysis ($70,000) and advanced training in a new "6 phase" method ($50,000), and that INSCOM would transfer $120,000 to DIA on receipt of the $150,000 fiscal 1981 Grill Flame budget, retaining $30,000 for in-house training and operations.10 On January 14, 1981 the Under Secretary of the Army approved INSCOM as the only active operational Grill Flame element in the Army, and program management passed to the INSCOM commander on February 11, 1981.9 An INSCOM memorandum states that Major General Albert Stubblebine assumed command of the command in May 1981.11

An undated Army briefing script on the program describes the division of labor within the Army: the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity (AMSAA) was to act as the remote viewing "free lance," trying new techniques; the Missile Research and Development Command (MIRADCOM) led a small pilot program with SRI on remote perturbation, using a miniprocessor to test whether an individual can affect randomness; and INSCOM "has the mission of remote viewing applications, working with a select cadre of remote viewers" in order "to verify by application, what is learned from other agencies' more-or-less research efforts." The script gives the Army's interest as determining "the reality and existence of the phenomena," and states that "the sure knowledge that for years the Soviet Union has had an intense effort, believed to be controlled by the KGB and military," was "also spurring the effort on."12

Taskings, funding and evaluations

By the command's own tally, INSCOM conducted 106 projects between September 1, 1979 and September 28, 1984: 53 were rated by the sponsor as having intelligence value, 28 as having none, 8 had no evaluation, 15 were cancelled and 2 reported information the sponsor could not verify.13 The command's papers state that "the Army, DIA, NSA and Central Intelligence Agency have all tasked this methodology," and a 1984 position paper adds the Air Force, the National Security Council and the Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation as customers.1415 A briefing of Vice President George H.W. Bush on March 31, 1983 used three INSCOM projects as examples: Project 402 (a Typhoon-class submarine), Project 8003(D) (the XM-1 tank) and Project 8034, described in the record as a KGB agent.16

Spending on the effort, excluding salaries, was $686,000 for fiscal years 1979 through 1983: $87,000 in 1979 ($75,000 to SRI), $32,000 in 1980, $205,000 in 1981 ($190,000 to SRI under the joint services program), $242,000 in 1982 and $121,000 in 1983, which included $36,000 for Coordinate Remote Viewing training at SRI and $24,400 for a consultant agreement with Robert Monroe. For fiscal 1984 the project received $496,500 in "P-6" funds through the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research, Development and Acquisition and $315,000 in INSCOM funds. The P-6 money was to buy biomonitoring equipment, develop a psychological screening profile, study whether extremely low frequency electromagnetic radiation affects psychoenergetic performance (and as a possible countermeasure), and develop a technique for "search problems."17

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman, Representative Edward Boland, asked on August 23, 1982 for a report on the three-year DoD Grill Flame project by October 15, 1983. DIA's independent evaluation team, whose final draft INSCOM received but whose final version it did not, wrote that "the evidence shown to us is too impressive to dismiss as mere coincidence" and that SRI "warrants cautious continued fiscal support." DIA published its three-year, $1.5 million report on October 19, 1983.9

Detachment G, the 1982 funding cutoff and cover options

On September 30, 1982 Congress directed that Department of Defense psychoenergetic activities could not be conducted within the National Foreign Intelligence Program, and Army Grill Flame collection operations lost funding.918 A 902d MI Group memorandum of September 22, 1982 from the Security Support Detachment explained that the commanding general had decided to continue using the psi personnel (then Detachment G, a $250,000 effort for fiscal 1983) without NFIP money, and set out cover options: sponsorship by the NSA, with the personnel carried on the rolls of the CONUS MI Group or the 902d MI Group as a "Strategic Systems Planning Detachment" or a "Security Systems Planning and Review Division"; sponsorship by the 902d alone; or transfer to a headquarters support detachment as a "Security Readiness and Mobilization Planning Division." The memorandum states that the unit "must completely sever all direct ties with Project GRILL FLAME," recommends a "cover front" of at least one officer and a secretary to "live the cover," return of the unit's telephone numbers to the telephone company, new signs bearing the cover name, and the removal of all desk nameplates except three. It also distinguishes members of the "Great Skill Program" from "open system" personnel.19

An earlier staff paper listed five options for the project's future, including integration into the final year of the DIA program, integration into an NSA program, funding with research money, placement under the command psychologist, or reassignment of the military personnel to Fort Meade organizations.20 The commanding general chose to continue; on a date recorded as December 3, 1982 the effort was renamed CENTER LANE, funded from INSCOM's own security and intelligence activities money "out of hide" on the basis of ACSI staff guidance. Under Secretary of Defense Richard DeLauer signed a memorandum on January 19, 1983 allowing Program 6 resources to be used to maintain the capability, and a letter of instruction early in 1983 established the unit as the Security Systems Planning Division of the Security Support Detachment.49

Center Lane (1982 to 1985)

CENTER LANE was a Department of the Army Special Access Program. Its stated 1978 to 1983 mission was to establish remote viewing training for selected INSCOM personnel, collection techniques and a tasking mechanism, "to see if responsible, level headed, Army personnel could replicate remote viewing results reported by SRI International." From 1983 it was to conduct psychoenergetic intelligence collection and counterintelligence and to expand "into the field of psychoenergetic communications and psychokinesis."9 A second group of operatives began Coordinate Remote Viewing training at SRI in January 1984 under a contract awarded November 15, 1983. A November 1983 directive by the commanding general made the Monroe Institute's Rapid Acquisition Personnel Training seminar a screening tool, funded through the command's organizational effectiveness office for operations security reasons; the Director of the Army Staff cancelled that use on March 13, 1984.417

Between March 1983 and January 1985 the project was briefed to Army leadership, congressional staff and others, including Vice Chief of Staff General John Wickham (March 14, 1983), the Vice President (March 31, 1983, briefed by Dr. Jack Vorona of DIA, with Admiral Daniel Murphy, his chief of staff, and Donald Gregg, his assistant for national security affairs, present), the Army Science Board, Secretary of the Army John Marsh, and Senator Malcolm Wallop of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.4 Lieutenant General Lincoln D. Faurer, director of the NSA, was briefed on August 2, 1982, and the CIA was briefed on February 6, 1980 and again in 1982.4 A memorandum of August 27, 1982 by Grill Flame project manager Lieutenant Colonel Robert Jachim records that NSA personnel said the agency had no active remote viewers, asked INSCOM how its viewers were selected and what training SRI provided, and that Hal Puthoff of SRI had telephoned an NSA contact to say that some of the funding had not materialized and to invite NSA into the program; the NSA contact "was noncommittal."21

The commanding general formulated a decision in July 1984 to discontinue CENTER LANE as an INSCOM project, and the Secretary of the Army approved discontinuance and negotiations for its transfer. The 1984 papers list McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company, the Mind Science Foundation of San Antonio, the Byring Research Foundation of Salt Lake City, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and the Monroe Institute as possible alternate contractors.17 Operational collection ceased on September 28, 1984. A memorandum of agreement signed on March 7, 1985 by Lieutenant General James Williams, director of DIA, transferred operational control of the project to DIA, with a request for dissolution of the special access program.422

Footnotes

  1. "Arlington Hall: From Coeds to Codewords," army.mil, https://www.army.mil/article/105000/arlington_hall_from_coeds_to_codewords (Army Security Agency headquarters at Arlington Hall followed by INSCOM until relocation to Fort Belvoir in 1989). The 1977 activation date and the merger of the Army Security Agency with the Army Intelligence Agency are from the INSCOM history page, https://www.usainscom.army.mil/History/. ↩︎

  2. "Lieutenant General William I. Royla [sic] US Army, Retired (Deceased)," Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame biography, https://www.ikn.army.mil/apps/MIHOF/biographies/Rolya,%20William.pdf (Rolya commander of the Army Security Agency and "first Commander, US Army Intelligence and Security Command"; retired 1984; died April 28, 1990). ↩︎

  3. Memorandum, "Detachment G Reorganization," 902d Military Intelligence Group Security Support Detachment, September 22, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700350013-3, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700350013-3 (the CONUS MI Group as "the housekeeping organization for Army personnel working at NSA"; the 902d MI Group as another host organization for Army personnel working at NSA; INSCOM liaison officer at NSA). ↩︎

  4. "Center Lane Historical Overview, September 1977 to March 1985," in "CENTER LANE Information Papers for Director, Defense Intelligence Agency," March 7, 1985, CIA-RDP96-00788R000400060001-2, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r000400060001-2. A copy of the 1984 version is CIA-RDP96-00788R001700280007-8. ↩︎

  5. Message DTG 051630Z July 1978 from HQ Department of the Army (DAMI-ISH), "Issuance of Unclassified Nickname GRILL FLAME," reproduced in CIA-RDP96-00788R000400060001-2. ↩︎

  6. Memorandum for Brigadier General Smith, "GRILL FLAME Status Report," 902d MI Group, September 26, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100440004-9, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001100440004-9. ↩︎

  7. "CENTER LANE Personnel Selection Procedures," information paper, October 10, 1984, in CIA-RDP96-00788R000400060001-2. ↩︎

  8. Command Group Approval/Release Sheet, "Establishment of INSCOM Human Use Review Committee (GRILL FLAME)," March 1980, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100440034-6, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001100440034-6. ↩︎

  9. "CENTER LANE Approval History," "GRILL FLAME Evaluations" and "CENTER LANE Mission" information papers, October 10, 1984, in CIA-RDP96-00788R000400060001-2. ↩︎

  10. Memorandum, Major General William I. Rolya to Major General E. R. Thompson, "GRILL FLAME Program," August 25, 1980, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200020011-6, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001200020011-6. ↩︎

  11. INSCOM commanding general's talking paper, May 4, 1984, in CIA-RDP96-00788R001500180001-7, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001500180001-7 ("Since May 1981, when I assumed command of INSCOM, the project (now CENTER LANE) has provided the U.S. Army and such agencies as DIA, CIA, NSA, FBI, and the Secret Service critical intelligence unavailable from other sources"). ↩︎

  12. "Army's Role in a Sensitive, Close-Hold DoD Project," Army briefing script on psychoenergetics (undated), CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020023-5, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000200020023-5. ↩︎

  13. "CENTER LANE Operational Accomplishments," information paper, March 7, 1985, in CIA-RDP96-00788R000400060001-2 (the figure for projects reporting information not verifiable by the sponsor is partly illegible in the scan; the total of 106 less the other categories gives two). ↩︎

  14. Same document, memorandum on disposition of ICLP, 1984 ("Intelligence consumers in the US Army, US Air Force, DIA, NSA, CIA, and NSC have all tasked this capability"). ↩︎

  15. Same document, memorandum of the commanding general, 1984 ("Intelligence users in the Army, DIA, NSA and CIA have all tasked this methodology to augment established disciplines"). ↩︎

  16. Memorandum for the record, "Briefing," Major Gerald Fox, DAMI-ISH, April 1, 1983, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700270002-4. The record states that Admiral Murphy had not initiated the briefing, "so it appears that the Vice President personally requested it." ↩︎

  17. "CENTER LANE Funding," "CENTER LANE Training Programs" and "Personnel Selection Procedures" information papers, October 10, 1984, in CIA-RDP96-00788R000400060001-2. ↩︎

  18. Staff paper on termination of the Army Grill Flame program, 1982, in CIA-RDP96-00788R001500180001-7. ↩︎

  19. Memorandum, "Detachment G Reorganization," September 22, 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700350013-3. ↩︎

  20. Same document as note 19, options paragraph. ↩︎

  21. Memorandum for the record, "NSA Involvement in GRILL FLAME," Lieutenant Colonel Robert J. Jachim, August 1982, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700230009-1, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001700230009-1. ↩︎

  22. Memorandum of agreement signed by Lieutenant General Williams, March 7, 1985, recorded in the Center Lane Historical Overview, CIA-RDP96-00788R000400060001-2. ↩︎