There's a fascinating article on the BBC website about Susan Travers - the only woman to have served in the French Foreign Legion.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8271773.stm

She certainly lead an amazing life. Her greatest regret, she said, was not to have been born a boy, although she admitted that as such she would never have done half the things she'd done or enjoyed the life she led subsequently.