Thanx all for the support and the good advice from those in the know.
I haven't a way to measure the relief that I feel at the moment. I was in the process of gathering another wave of letters and data to send to them - and honestly was expecting that my next step might be securing an attorney in the next couple of weeks, when the exonerating phone call came. Now I only have to wait for the official letter to arrive for my files and I can put this to bed.
I can now state that at least in my personal case, that the IRS Tax Advocate program worked well - it gave me a real person to talk to, who pushed the examiner to look at the documents I had already sent [and the examiner's office had already ignored before I called the TA].
Great joy in Muddville tonight.
Jeff