That would take about 25 tracks, which is why I didn't send any in the first place, but I see your point.
In any case, I finally figured it out--it was a mod (specifically the VSN F-4B/C) which was removing all my REDFOR groups at start up. Apparently this showed up with 2.9.14.8222 last WED. I don't run many mods (and I can live without this one) once it occurred to me that a mod might be messing things up, it only took an hour of rerunning with and without specific mods to find the one that did it.
My goal was to learn the GBU procedures--I think I now have them memorized... 😉
Thanks!
Zone5's post in GBUs: What am I doing wrong? was marked as the answer