Tom,
The approach to build the extra job step by making an XREF Index File with all possible name strings(2 bytes or greater) did the trick. Yes, it did create a XREF file with over 200K records, but the efforts were worth it.
When I specify an input string at the prompt, less than 1 second later my results come up. Pretty much as soon as I press ENTER the results come up. So, this was definitely a great solution! Beats the heck out of coding an INSPECT while reading through every rec on the 5000 rec index file.
That took 14 seconds - way too long.
Also your suggestion to manipulate the UNSTRING code to get my 1 in "1 AMARILLO" worked.
Next step for me is to research/work with a Named-Pipe tool to connect to the programs written in Java. My application was simply a test to query the name data. The java programmers will actually submitting the queries through a NamedPipe, I'll catch it, and throw them back the results.
They're programming the Java in JDeveloper. They mentioned using SOAP to connect to by COBOL; don't know if that's possible - but I think I've heard of the NamedPipe working with RMCOBOL 85 before.
Thanks again for all the help! You guys rock.
-David