VMS Help FORTRAN, Intrinsic Procedures, TIME  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

  CALL TIME (buf)

  buf  Is an 8-byte variable, array, array element,
       or character substring.

  A subroutine that places the current time in 24-hour ASCII format
  in the argument.  The time is returned as an 8-byte ASCII character
  string having the following form:

     hh:mm:ss

  A 24-hour clock is used.

  If "buf" is numeric type and smaller than 8 bytes, data corruption
  can occur.

  If "buf" is character type, its associated length is passed to the
  subroutine.  If "buf" is smaller than 8 bytes, the subroutine
  truncates the date to fit in the specified length.  Note that if a
  CHARACTER array is passed, the subroutine stores the time in the
  first array element, using the element length, not the length of
  the entire array.  For example, consider the following:

  CHARACTER*1 HOUR(8)
     .
     .
     .
  CALL TIME(HOUR)

  The length of the first array element in CHARACTER array HOUR is
  passed to the TIME subroutine.  The subroutine then truncates the
  time to fit into the one-character element, producing an incorrect
  result.