May, 2002, Miami Florida
Military Handbook 17 is pleased to recognize Donald Oplinger for his meritorious service to the Polymeric Composites Handbook and to the composites community in general. Unfortunately this is a posthumous award as Donald passed away in June 2000.
Don's contributions to the PMC Handbook were numerous and reflect his thorough knowledge of composite joints and testing methods; technical fields in which he was active for more than thirty years.
He was the sole author of a chapter in Volume 3 on bonded joints and a major contributor to the bolted joints chapter, also in Volume 3. While writing the bonded joint chapter, he had a special distinction of working on an action item that was open for more than ten years.
When Don started work at the United States Army's Materials Laboratory in Watertown, MA, he immediately got involved in the Handbook not only by providing technical expertise but also by recruiting statistical experts to help in data reduction. His last major contribution, when he was at the Federal Aviation Agency, was to fund research in testing methods, the last being the combined loading compression (CLC) test method. This test method has become an ASTM standard and its description is in Volume 1 of the Handbook.
Don's Distinguished Servise plaque was award posthumously
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