[newbie] "linker input file unused because linking not done"?

[Tom Roche <Tom_Roche at pobox dot com>]

I'm guessing that either I'm making an embarrassingly simple mistake
(my background is nearly all with VMs and interpreters), or that the
problem below is somehow related to my converting a build process
accustomed to using icc/ifc to gcc/gfortran. In any case, I'm stumped:

I have a Makefile with

> FC     = gfortran
> FFLAGS = -ffixed-line-length-132 -w -c -m64 -march=native -funroll-loops --param max-unroll-times=4 -ftree-vectorize -ftree-vectorizer-verbose=0 -O2 -I$(NETCDF)/include -I$(IOAPI_ROOT)/src -I.
> LIBS   = -L$(IOAPI_ROOT)/lib -lioapi \
>          -L$(NETCDF)/lib -lnetcdff -lnetcdf

followed by lists of MODULES and OBJS, then

> all:
>       @$(MAKE) $(MODULES)
>       @$(MAKE) $(MODEL)

> $(MODEL): $(OBJS)
>       $(FC) -o $(MODEL) $(FFLAGS) $(OBJS) $(MODULES) $(LIBS)

> $(OBJS): $(MODULES)

`make` compiles 96 fortran sources to object files without complaint,
then runs

> gfortran -o runme <$FFLAGS expanded here/> runme.o <95 more *.o here/> <$LIBS expanded here/>

which produces 96 lines like

> gfortran: warning: <object filename here/>: linker input file unused because linking not done

What must I utter to cause the *.o (listed in the linkage command in
the Makefile) in the current directory to be linked?

FWIW I also tried FFLAGS ending with '-L.' instead of 'I.': no change.

I suspect I need to Read Some Fine Manual: feel free to point me to one.

TIA, Tom Roche <Tom_Roche@pobox.com>