Murray Watt

Murray B. "Scotty" Watt was a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and the first commander of the Gondola Wish (later Grill Flame) remote viewing unit. He was two decades older than Skip Atwater, described as a tall and husky man with a bulbous nose and a Boston accent. Watt had a reputation for a volcanic temper, which, according to the writer Jim Schnabel, hindered his career after an incident in Panama where he struck a fellow officer. He was chosen for this obscure and potentially controversial assignment because it was felt he had "little to lose."¹

Watt, along with Atwater, was responsible for selecting and training the initial remote viewers for the program. He handled the bureaucratic aspects of the unit, maintaining contact with the network of Grill Flame customers and ensuring the unit's operations adhered to necessary protocols. He was concerned about maintaining the appearance of scientific rigor and avoiding any perception of cheating within the program.¹

Watt was present during many key remote viewing sessions, including the initial session with Mel Riley where he served as the target. He also played a role in the acquisition of a Soviet T-72 tank, signing for the envelope containing the target information. He was a key figure in the unit's operations during the Iran hostage crisis, where he gathered the team at a motel to conduct continuous remote viewing related to the rescue mission.¹

Despite his initial lack of interest in the paranormal, Watt was instrumental in the establishment and early operations of the Army's psychic spying program. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel during his tenure with the unit. He eventually transferred out of the unit, but not before helping to establish it on a firm footing.¹

The Documents

Murray B. Watt, called Scotty, was a major of military intelligence in the human intelligence office of INSCOM at Fort Meade. "Sometime during the month of October 1978, Colonel A. W. Hamel, ADCSOPS-HUMINT, INSCOM, was tasked by the DCSOPS, INSCOM, to provide a Project Officer for a new program that INSCOM was becoming involved in at the direction of the ACSI. Major Murray B. Watt was selected to be the INSCOM Project Manager (PM) and on 27 October 1978 was so notified." The tasking was verbal: "There exists no written tasking between OACSI and HQ, INSCOM." His first progress report, of February 21, 1979, records his visits to SRI on November 15 to 17, 1978, where he met Hal Puthoff, Russell Targ, the psychologist Charles Tart, and Edwin May, and on December 12 to 15, where he met Puthoff and Ingo Swann; the first meeting of the Defense Department's Grill Flame committee on November 28, 1978, at which he joined the working groups on objectives and on protocols; the visit with Lieutenant Frederick Atwater to Aberdeen Proving Ground on January 12, 1979; and the screening of INSCOM personnel for viewers, 251 considered and 117 interviewed, unit by unit.²

Watt briefed the committee on "INSCOM training and operational application of the remote viewing phenomenon" on November 27, 1979, and, as a lieutenant colonel, briefed Representative Charles Rose with General Edmund Thompson on April 16, 1981, writing the record of it. On June 30, 1981, as "outgoing project manager," he gave the first Grill Flame briefing to the new commander of INSCOM, Albert Stubblebine, alongside his successor, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Jachim.³

Watt wrote INSCOM's record of the first meeting of "the DoD Committee on Special Sensors" on November 28, 1978, as "MAJ, MI, GRILL FLAME Project Officer, INSCOM," listing himself and Major William Stoner among thirteen present with Jack Vorona, Dailey of the Under Secretary's office, Dale Graff, John Kramar and Colonel Al DeProspero of AMSAA, Bill Mehuron of the Navy and a redacted name from NSA, and noting that "DIA will have 'Intelligence Oversight' responsibility; local IG cannot inspect without approval." On January 16, 1980, "I briefed Congressman Charlie Rose... on the INSCOM GRILL FLAME Project," with Thompson, Vorona, "Jake Stewart, NSC Staff Member" and "Dick Giza, Office of Congressman Rose" present; "Page 3 of Incl 1 was not provided to the audience at the direction of MG Thompson," and Rose "encouraged us to continue with our program." His comments on the Gale report in February 1980 called it "very shallow in nature," noted "after all, we provided the committee with most of the data contained in the Annex," and asked of its handwriting passage, "Did they, in fact, question Targ on this handwriting issue?"; "at the working meeting held 30-31 Jan I outlined most of our major objections."⁹⁰⁰