DEFENCE force chiefs have agreed to pay for the sex-change operation of a soldier who wants to return to her old job training Diggers in extreme sports after her surgery.

Army Captain Matthew Clinch, who served twice in East Timor, will become Bridget Clinch after gender reassignment-realignment surgery, funded by taxpayers.

Victorian RSL president Maj-Gen David McLachlan said he was surprised the Army was picking up the tab.

"It seems a little odd that they would allow such an abnormal situation get this far," Maj-Gen McLachlan said.



"The soldier involved would be putting themselves in a situation where they would be subjected to all sorts of peer pressure."

Asked if paying for the surgery was a good use of defence funds, he said: "It's unusual."

Capt Clinch is with partner Tammy and two daughters on extended sick leave from her job as second-in-command of the army's Adventurous Training Wing based at Wagga in southern NSW, but wants her former job back.

Appearing on Seven's Sunday Night last night the decorated East Timor veteran, who did two tours of duty with the Townsville-based 1st Battalion, said she'd always felt like a woman locked in a man's body.



"There is no difference between what I can do and what any other female can do once I've finished all of my treatment," Capt Clinch said.



Tammy, who also trained as an army officer and describes Capt Clinch as her "knight in shining armour", is angry the military took so long to agree to fund the treatment.

"Matt was a good army officer, I think that Bridget will make a better army officer, they just need to realise it.

"I saw my partner suffering really badly and I helped him. It was hard though because I was helping destroy the outside bit of the man I loved."

But Capt Clinch's mother, Deidre, told Channel 7 her son had mutilated his body.

"Matthew had a healthy body . . . he was very particular about health and lifestyle and for him to mutilate this beautiful body, which I've watched grow," she said.

"He said there was a mistake on his birth certificate, there was no mistake, he was a perfect little boy, he was the most beautiful child."

Defence chief Angus Houston has ordered his troops to "manage ADF transgender personnel with fairness, respect and dignity . . . and ensure all personnel are not subject to unacceptable behaviour".

There is at least one other ADF member seeking financial support to change from male to female.