Chris.... Thank you for your input on this issue.  The solution ended up being a lot easier. It was user error. 

I had created a second version of this DTL to test out modification for anticipated future file formats.  The DTL is actually used as a subtransformation, so the outer DTL was pointed to the second version while I was making the above modifications on the original version. 

The simple solution ended up being:      ..Strip(source.{loop2000(k1).loop2100A.PER:CommunicationNumber},"*AW","-()/")

I have tried adding the P, so that my action is *AWP.  I have also tried using "E" as the action, which strips everything and use "1234567890" as the keepchar value.   That didn't work either. 

Thanks!  I did figure out that -9 was the value I needed and it is now working.