Warrior Princess: Transgender woman reveals how she served as part of Navy SEAL Team Six for 20 years before retiring and leaving her male self behind

A former Navy SEAL has written a book about the 20 years that they spent in the elite squad before living life as a woman.

Kristen Beck was called Chris while she served in the famous Navy SEAL squad, one team of which gained international recognition for being the ones who killed Osama bin Laden.

As Chris, Beck served for 20 years in SEAL team 6 and retired just months before the May 2011 raid on bin Laden's compound.



Then and now: For 20 years, Chris Beck (left) served in the U.S. military as a member of the elite Navy SEAL Team Six, and he retired in 2011 and now lives life as Kristen (right)

During her time in the military, Beck went on 13 deployments- including seven in combat zones- and earned both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.



Now she is detailing her multi-year process in transitioning from living life as one of the world's most highly-skilled soldiers to that of her female personality that feels like more of a matched fit to her mental and emotional personality.

Beck has penned a book with the help of Anne Speckhard called 'Warrior Princess' and attempts to explain the need for her transition.



'Chris really wanted to be a girl and felt that she was a girl and consolidated that identity very early on in childhood,' Ms Speckhard told ABC News .

The book was released over the weekend, and addresses how she dealt with living as a man in order to continue to serve her country.

More fitting: Beck said that she always thought of herself as a woman but suppressed those feelings for years



Transgender individuals are not allowed to serve in the U.S. military, as that right was not included in the recent overhaul of the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' laws that now permit gays and lesbians from serving in the armed forces.

Telling her tale: Beck wrote a book about her experience, and how she went from earning a Purple Heart in battle to starting a therapy garden for returning veterans

'For years Chris had turned off his sexuality like a light switch and lived as a warrior, consumed with the battle -- living basically asexual,' the book reads.

'For Chris the other SEALs were brothers and in the man's man warrior lifestyle, even if he had wanted to entertain sexual thoughts, there really was never any time to be thinking too much about sexuality.'

Beck is now promoting the book as she pursues her new career as an activist and public speaker.

She has created a garden in the backyard of her home in St. Petersburg, Florida and is opening it up to returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan in an effort to help calm them as they return to civilian life.

'Sitting in my back yard or at my fishpond I no longer feel anger, resentment or depression; I feel peace. I want to give this option of a "peace garden" to my veteran brothers and sisters,' she writes on the group's website under her old name of Chris.