He came to Ft. Meade in 1977 while still in his late twenties. While with the Systems Exploitation Detachment (SED), which was under control of the office of the assistant chief of staff for intelligence (ACSI), he suggested to the head of the SED, Col. Robert Keenan, that the Army develop a small, experimental group of psychics. (Schnabel, Jim, Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies, Dell, 1997, pg 11-3)
After retiring from the Army in 1987, Atwater became the director of research for the Monroe Institute. (Schnabel, 1997, pg 336)