---
alias:
- Bill Stoner
- Maj. William L. Stoner
category: Intelligence & Government
created: 2026-09-22
location: Washington, D.C.
summary: Army intelligence staff major who coordinated the 1979 Gale Committee, sat
  on the Defense Department's Grill Flame working group, and wrote the memorandum
  attacking Gale's briefing of the report.
tags:
- Person
- WilliamStoner
- GrillFlame
- RemoteViewing
- Army
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Major William L. Stoner, GS, of the Army assistant chief of staff for intelligence's office (DAMI-ISH), was listed as "Coordinator" of the [Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee](/events/grill-flame-scientific-evaluation-committee/) under [Manfred Gale](/people/manfred-gale/) in 1979 and attended the Defense Department's Grill Flame committee under [Jack Vorona](/people/jack-vorona/) as "Major Bill Stoner" on November 27, 1979. His memorandum of conversation on Gale's briefing of January 14, 1980, ran through Gale's oral claims one by one: that Gale "has, in briefing the report here and elsewhere, done a great deal of verbalizing (shading) issues, personal opinion, 'faction,' and general guesswork not contained anywhere in the report"; that [Robert Jahn](/people/robert-jahn/) at Princeton "does not have a drop dead time two years out"; that [Ray Hyman](/people/ray-hyman/) "was rejected not because of any action by Gale, but because of a protest memo from MG [Thompson](/people/edmund-thompson/) to Dr [LaBerge](/people/walter-laberge/)"; that Gale's "over 5000 experiments" was "an unadulterated W.A.G. (wild guess)" that "commingled" [INSCOM](/organizations/united-states-army-intelligence-and-security-command/)'s "300-odd runs and SRI's 1972 work," "disregarding the fact that INSCOM's operational tests have been producing some amazing things"; that Gale's remarks on the Surgeon General rested on "a cribbed copy of the Surgeon General's comments. Question I have is who gave it to him," and that "because of prior intelligence problems (e.g., LSD case) two members of the Surgeon General's review panel are dead set against this kind of work," one of them the panel chairman, "in a position to drag feet, (two months to get the recommendations out) perform a little sub rosa disinformation on the side, etc."; and, of Gale's "the GRILL FLAME Working Group is in a shambles," that "as you know I am less than thrilled by the Working Group's leadership, but categorically deny that the Group is in shambles." His conclusion: "the Gale report is big, but weak," Gale "has gone far beyond that charter, impinging on the ACSI's responsibility for total program management," and "should desist from brokering it around the Pentagon"; Vorona's memorandum to Lieutenant General [Tighe](/people/eugene-tighe/) of January 11 "should stand unless we are willing to watch Gale work it out to his satisfaction, delivering us a fait accompli."[^1]

On January 25, 1980, Gale asked Stoner to distribute the 27 copies of the report, and "in accordance with the security guide for this program, your office is designated as Office of Record for all reports, as well as for the authorization and release of any additional copies."[^2]

[^1]: *Report by the Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee,* December 1979, Manfred Gale, chairman, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300120001-5. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Defense Intelligence Agency, "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 27 November 1979," S-1168/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000130015-1, and "Minutes of the DoD Grill Flame Committee Meeting, 10 January 1980," S-1008/DT-1, CIA-RDP96-00788R002000100009-1, both signed Jack Vorona, chairman. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection. Stoner, William L., Major, GS, "Memorandum of Conversation, Subject: Gale Briefing to ZA, Science Evaluation Group Final Report on GRILL FLAME, 14 Jan 80," CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230017-7. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.
[^2]: Gale, M., "Distribution of GRILL FLAME Reports," memorandum for Major Stoner, ACSI, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Research, Development and Acquisition, January 25, 1980, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230023-0; three CIA Reading Room items of February 13, 1980, are titled "Scientific Evaluation Committee (SEC) Grill Flame Report, Dated November 1979" (CIA-RDP96-00788R002000250025-7, R001100080007-6, R001200230026-7), not read. Read in the archive.org mirror of the CIA FOIA Reading Room STARGATE collection.