Why is a date field not being populated by the Fetch?

Hi
To Dennis and Birgitta
Thank you very much for your explanations.  Now I understand.  Now it makes perfect sense. 
In the spirit of friendly discussion, let me answer some of the questions you intelligent gentlemen brought up.....

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Dennis asked,
"What value would you expect SQL to set?"
I expected that the fetch would set the field to null and then the RPG Eval-Corr would simply copy the null to another null capable field. 
Now I know that must not try to copy a Null to another field.

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Dennis said,
"eliminate all references to *IN indicators." 
Why are the intelligent iSeries people so against the simpler aspects of RPG.  I confess that I prefer to use the simpler conventions in RPG because they are simple to use.   

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Birgitta said,
"it is never a good idea to use SELECT *,"
Of course, you are right that explicitly specifying the columns is better for performance.  But then, the pgm becomes a little less simple. 
In traditional RPG Read or Chain, the pgm receives all values.  So, 500 lines later, I can confidently use the value because the Read or Chain has brought it in.  Specifying the columns, means that I no longer have that assurance.
Specify the columns and the benefit is performance gain.  The drawback is having to be far more careful about what field values the pgm knows and which ones it doesn't know.

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I say.....
Yep, it's a much more complicated programming model that now exists.  Maybe simplicity is a thing of the past. 
Thank you very much for posting your answers and helping the simpler (me) programmers.
Have a great day