VMS Help FORTRAN, Statements, READ, Direct, Formatted  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

  Formatted direct READ statement format:

    READ(extu,fmt,rec[,err][,iostat])[iolist]

    READ(u'r,fmt[,err][,iostat]) [iolist]

  Reads from a specified external unit.  Translates the data from
  character to binary format as specified by "fmt".