According to VFP help the Maximum # of characters per command line is 8,192 and Maximum length of a string literal is 255. Split your memo value into the pieces no longer than 255 characters. I guess you'll have to do the same in your VB code.

INSERT INTO ems_ptnt (narrative) VALUES ( ;
	"The patient seen for Severe Trauma/Injury Accident. History obtained from Bystanders. " + ;
	"Symptoms described as Pain centered in L chest. Onset was Sudden. At first, patient was Driving. " + ;
	"Condition provoked by Deep Breathing, Exertion. Palliated by Lying down. Pain quality was Crushing. " + ;
	"On 0-10 scale, pain was 10 at its worst. Upon EMS arrival pain = 9. After intervention, pain = 2. " + ;
	"Time(s) patient was symptomatic: Occasionau. Associated S/S include Dyspnea. Pertinent negatives include: " + ;
	"(-) Nausea, (-) Vomiting, (-) Syncope. After intervention, S/S appear to Diminish. " + ;
	"Recently, patient had Operation on L hip.")

>BTW, That insert statement i just posted may very well have some syntax errors in it ( I found a missing "'" somewhere in playing with it), but that doesn't negate the basic problem. Even when the statement is clean, it won't perform the update, either through odbc or from the command box in vfp.
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>I'm using VB6.0 to generate the code, ado 2.6, the latest vfp odbc driver- 6.1.8629.1, and vfp 6.0.
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>How long a statement can you have in the command window? When I attempt to update a single (memo) field in the table, I get "unknown command" when the statement exceeds 512 characters.
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>I am suspecting that I have a configuration problem, because I can't execute the code either through odbc or directly w/in vfp.