---
born: 1935-10-30
category: Scientists & Researchers
created: 2026-09-22
died: 2026-01-19
location: Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
relations:
- fn: 1
  role: Grill Flame project officer; chief, Ground Warfare Division
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity]]'
- end: 1980
  fn: 4
  role: AMSAA Grill Flame project officer
  start: 1978
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Stargate Project]]'
summary: Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity engineer who was its Grill Flame
  project officer and rebutted the Gale committee's call to end the Army's remote-viewing
  work.
tags:
- Person
- Engineer
- AMSAA
- GrillFlame
- RemoteViewing
updated: 2026-09-22
---

John Winston Kramar was born in [Chicago](/places/chicago/) and moved with his parents to Edgewood, [Maryland](/places/maryland/), at fourteen. He graduated in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 1957 and became chief of the Ground Warfare Division of the Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity (AMSAA) at Aberdeen Proving Ground and a charter member of the Army's Senior Executive Service. He died in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on January 19, 2026.[^1]

### Grill Flame

Kramar and Colonel Albert De Prospero of AMSAA were named as discussants, with [Dale Graff](/people/dale-graff/) of the Foreign Technology Division, in the "Sensory Technology Assessment" of November 14, 1978.[^2] AMSAA's interim note of July 1979 on its [Grill Flame](/programs/stargate-project/) phase I efforts listed "Mr. John Kramar" among its participants, with [Evan Harris Walker](/people/evan-harris-walker/) and Lewis Walt.[^3]

As AMSAA's Grill Flame project officer, Kramar wrote for the record on February 13, 1980, that the report of the [Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee](/events/grill-flame-scientific-evaluation-committee/), "transmitted to AMSAA January 1980, was found to be somewhat ambiguous and confusing," and took "exception" to its recommendation to "Terminate all AMSAA GRILL FLAME efforts": "This recommendation, as best as can be determined, is based only on a partial understanding of AMSAA's initial effort, which was terminated before the SEC came into being. There is an apparent mistake by the SEC in considering the AMSAA challenge/validation efforts to be an integral part of the [SRI](/organizations/stanford-research-institute/) contract." He copied [Manfred Gale](/people/manfred-gale/) and DARCOM.[^4]

[^1]: "John Winston Kramar," obituary, McComas Family Funeral Homes, January 20, 2026. https://www.mccomasfuneralhome.com/obituaries/john-kramar
[^2]: "Sensory Technology Assessment," November 14, 1978, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^3]: U.S. Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity, "Project Grill Flame AMSAA Phase I Efforts," Interim Note No. 15, July 1979, acknowledgements, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100080005-8. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^4]: Kramar, John W., AMSAA Grill Flame Project Officer, memorandum for record, "Scientific Evaluation Committee (SEC) GRILL FLAME Report, Dated November 1979," February 13, 1980, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230026-7 (copies at R002000250025-7 and R001100080007-6). Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.