joanne louise wingate, a warrant officer class 1, started her transition in august 1996 and eventually had her gender reassignment at the end of january 2000. only a few months after her srs (sex reassignment surgery male-to-female) the army terminated her service in may 2003, effectively firing her. this was in total disregard to their own "new guidelines/instruction agai 76" on the issue of "transition within the army" issued especially to protect people like her. as joanne wingate, served in falklands war, germany, gulf war, kosovo, bosnia, and northern ireland with the royal electrical and mechanical engineers and was also part of the army boxing team, army and british ski bike team.