Evelyn Reed
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5Born in the industrial heartland of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Staff Sergeant Evelyn "Eve" Reed was a product of her environment. The daughter of a steel mill foreman, she inherited her father's iron will and an innate understanding of machinery. From a young age, Evelyn was more at home in the garage, her hands covered in grease, than in a kitchen. She had a remarkable talent for taking things apart and putting them back together, a skill that earned her the respect of her father's coworkers and a scholarship to the Carnegie Institute of Technology. However, her promising academic career was abruptly halted by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Feeling a profound call to duty, she left her studies to enlist, driven by a desire to apply her unique skills to the war effort. Her peers and professors were shocked, but they knew that once Evelyn set her mind to something, she was unstoppable.
Initially, the military was hesitant to place a woman in a combat-adjacent role, but Evelyn’s remarkable aptitude scores in mechanical engineering and strategic thinking were impossible to ignore. She was assigned to the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion, a unit known for its mobile ferocity and independent spirit. It was here that she earned her now-legendary nickname, "Eve," an acronym for her quiet, yet commanding leadership style: "Every Vehicle, Every Time." Her mechanical expertise was nothing short of miraculous; she could improvise repairs on a disabled M10 tank destroyer under fire, often using salvaged parts and sheer ingenuity to get the crew back into the fight. As a result, she quickly rose through the ranks, her tactical insight and unflappable demeanor proving as valuable as her technical skills. She was promoted to Staff Sergeant, a rank rarely held by a woman in a forward combat unit, let alone in the heart of the European theater.
(Battle of the Bulge)
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