CRANE, Ind. - Matthew D. Sale received his first book about electricity in junior high from his late uncle, a technician for McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis. The book, along with interests in HO scale model trains, the Radio Shack 100-in-1 electronics kit, radio controlled model airplanes, and a “dad that could fix anything” fostered a brain hungry to know how anything and everything worked.
Sale, now an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Subject Matter Expert (SME) in the Flight Systems Division Design Branch at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane), said he used to think integrated circuit design was over his head. Support from employers and an internal drive to solve problems pushed him to achieve his goals.
“General Motors saw more in me than I did, and the rest is history,” he said.
Sale’s tendency to take things apart put them back together spills over into his private life, as well. He builds custom furniture at home, restored a 1969 Mustang in 1978 (which he still upgrades now and then), and has been a die-hard Linux user since it came out on floppy discs.
“I have more interests and hobbies than time, money, or energy,” Sale joked. “I inherited collectors’ disease, much to my wife’s dismay!”
Even with more hobbies than he knows what to do with, Sale comes in to work each day with the mission in mind. He said he’s passionate about keeping the U.S. military powerful and effective, a goal he personally contributes to through his role at NSWC Crane. Sale’s job entails supporting Navy and Air Force program offices as the ASIC SME, driving independent functional verification team to achieve first-pass success for contractor designs, and identifying and preventing faulty designs from being fielded.
Sale, a father whose proudest moment has been watching his son graduate from Purdue University, feels a responsibility toward mentoring the workers around him.
“I want to challenge people to grow and exceed their own self-expectations,” he said. “I like to live my life by the motto ‘We’re only limited by what we allow ourselves to achieve.’”
NSWC Crane is a naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with mission areas in Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions and Electronic Warfare. NSWC Crane is responsible for multi-domain, multi- spectral, full life cycle support of technologies and systems enhancing capability to today’s warfighter.