Thanks a ton! I've refined it a little, and will probably continue to as I figure more things out with it, but that got it working about 98% as I wanted. :)

For some reason I just don't understand how these menu's derive. For example, I am using the Nature4web template to learn from and they have the following code:

<h3>Navigate</h3>
<ul id="Navigation">
        <% control Menu(1) %>
                <li>
                        <a class="$LinkingMode" href="$Link" title="Go to the $Title.XML page">$MenuTitle<span></span></a>
                        <% if Children %>
                                <% if LinkingMode = section %>
                                        <ul id="Sub-Menu">
                                                <% control Children %>
                                                <li class="$LinkingMode<% if FirstLast %> $FirstLast<% end_if %>">
                                                        <% if LinkingMode = current %>
                                                                <a class="items" href="$Link" title="Go to the $Title.XML page">$MenuTitle</a>
                                                        <% else %>
                                                                <a class="item" href="$Link" title="Go to the $Title.XML page">$MenuTitle</a>
                                                        <% end_if %>
                                                </li>
                                                <% end_control %>
                                        </ul>
                                <% end_if %>
                                <% if LinkingMode = current %>
                                        <ul id="Sub-Menu">
                                                <% control Children %>
                                                <li class="$LinkingMode<% if FirstLast %> $FirstLast<% end_if %>">
                                                        <% if LinkingMode = current %>
                                                                <a class="items" href="$Link" title="Go to the $Title.XML page">$MenuTitle</a>
                                                        <% else %>
                                                                <a class="item" href="$Link" title="Go to the $Title.XML page">$MenuTitle</a>

                                                        <% end_if %>
                                                </li>
                                                <% end_control %>
                                        </ul>
                                <% end_if %>
                        <% end_if %>
                </li>
        <% end_control %>
</ul>

what I want to achieve is a third level menu which I would assume includes a block like:

<% if Children %>
<% control Children %>
   <a class="item" href="$Link" title="Go to the $Title.XML page">$MenuTitle</a>
<% end_control %>
<% end_if %>

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?

The menu nav should appear as follows:

Home
Section
Sub-Page

but the sub-page never renders or when I've gotten it to partially work, it shows up at Section level instead of Sub-page level...

thanks for anyone's help in advance!

Its because you have that wrapped inside a <% if LinkingMode = current %> . this will only return true if you are on the section page. You need to change that to if LinkOrSection = section which will return true if you are on that page (eg the main section page) or a child of the section page