Gondola Wish

Around 1977, Lt. Skip Atwater of the Army's Systems Exploitation Detachment (SED), which was under control of the office of the assistant chief of staff for intelligence (ACSI), suggested to the head of the SED, Col. Robert Keenan, that the Army develop a small, experimental group of psychics. The suggestion passed up the chain of command and was approved by the ACSI, Major General Edmund Thompson.

The project, which was codenamed Gondola Wish, had a small budget, and began the planning stages around late 1977. Lt. Atwater was given some funds, some office space, and a commanding officer, Lt. Scotty Watt. After consulting with the researchers at SRI, Atwater and Watt began screening possible recruits. The new recruits were to serve only part-time, and remain officially attached to their current units. The original recruits included:

Soon after Gondola Wish was staffed, by early 1978, they had conducted only a few remote viewing sessions before the work was halted. The project was considered to be "human use experimentation", and the process of approval, consent, and medical evaluations had to be completed. Several months passed, and the six most promising candidates (Riley, McMoneagle, Bell, Gauvin, Trent, and one of the civilians) were sent to SRI to be evaluated. Atwater and Watt were looking for the best three candidates, but all six seemed to fit the bill. Those that didn't go through training soon faded from the project.
(Schnabel, Jim, Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies, Dell, 1997, pg 13-20)

Gondola Wish had the support of Ed Thompson, who participated in an experiment himself, and to a lesser degree was supported by INSCOM (Army Intelligence and Security Command) commander William Rolya, as well as the Chief of Staff and the Secretry of the Army. Due to this interest, in 1978 Gondola Wish was moved into better quarters and redesignated Grill Flame. (Schnabel, 1997, pg 23-5)

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