right now I am trying to get the basics working such as the following query

select xmlcol.query('data(/HLMetaDataBDT/MapLink)')

My apologies, here you go.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

  <HLMetaDataBDT MVersion="3-00" RefName="RPD_850_003030_V7" Source="X12-850-003030_V1.xml" Target="ZORDERS_BS_3030v1.xml" UID="2d189ce7e5abbb7d71d1" maxOccurs="1" name="RPD_850_003030_V7.xml">

     <RecLink SUID="76a746e6d439342a4212" TUID="2d189ce7e5abbb7d73de"/>

     <MapLink SUID="76a746e6d439342a41f0" TUID="2d189ce7e5abbb7d73db"/>

     <Formula TUID="2d189ce7e5abbb7d73d5" Value=""/>

     <MapLink SUID="76a746e6d439342a41e5" TUID="2d189ce7e5abbb7d73d0"/>

     <MapLink SUID="76a746e6d439342a41e4" TUID="2d189ce7e5abbb7d73d0"/>

    ...

Thanks, I have tried XQuery (alot) but for some reason I can't get it to work against my data.

Here is a protion of the data.......any suggestions ether with XQuery or...