SUCCESS!!

I want to post back for anyone else that comes across this similar problem. Again I still don't know why Word will automatically modify the LINK field upon opening.

My 'guess' is that when you create an OLE link from Excel (and maybe other programs) is that Word is "establishing" the link, and your chart, etc will show in Word. And you can toggle F9 to see the chart or LINK reference.

The solution.... And you need to do this for every OLE link in your document.

First, create all of the OLE links like normal. Paste Special Link.

Next, Insert a LINK field in word directly beneath each of the charts/OLE links. In Word 2007, this under Insert | Quick Parts | Field. For Office 2007, Choose Link Excel Sheet 8

This will give you the following: Error! No topic specified.
Toggle F9 and you can see it just a link reference and does not includes any file path info.

Now, you need to manually copy and paste the file path info and cell/name reference of each link into the new LINK reference. And then delete the original copy paste special OLE link. You should still see the Error! No topic specified even after adding the file path info.

Again, I do not why this is the case. The two LINK references will look identical when your done. Yet one will show as Error! No topic specified, and the other will show the actual chart.

When your all done, the MSWord template should function like normal. You can create a new document from the template and should NOT be prompted to save your template. You can then change and update all the links in your document as normal.

One Warning..... Do NOT open the template directly and update the links. That will create the link/bond to your excel file and you'll have to redo it all.