I knew I was different by the time I was 7 and began expressing myself as a girl around that time. My father was a strict Catholic and my mother instantly panicked, so I went deep stealth. Didn't work very well, and a few years later she caught up with my clandestine efforts of gender expression. But this time she was much more calm (maybe she'd read something in the intervening years?) and we talked. But I was still scared to reveal myself. This was in the mid-60's and this was at a time when anyone considered deviant was being subjected to electroshock therapy and frontal lobotomies and gay people were considered mentally ill, so as you might imagine I came to the conclusion that stealth was in my best interest.
Although I knew at 7 years old that something was up I didn't have words for it until I was a teenager, but I was too scared to admit it until many years later.
Wow, Jorja, your story sounds a lot like mine!
I also joined the Navy, got married and had 2 kids. But I had grown so accustomed to suppressing my gender dissonance that by this time I was pretty good at living a false life and I actually flourished. Long story short, I earned my college degree aboard ship and decided to switch services. Joined the Army and graduated top of my OCS class, eventually became a Special Ops team leader and ops officer.
Finally admitting to myself that I couldn't live in denial any longer I came to grips with my gender issues and began therapy, and this made me decide that leaving the service was the best course of action. So I ended my career and left the service almost a year ago.
Same here. Drove a rental truck from North Carolina back home to Texas, unpacked it, changed my clothes and donated my entire male wardrobe. Life's been so much better from that day on. I'll be 55 years old next week and I only wish I'd done it sooner.