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A flag of this design flew in front of my unit headquarters (HQ) right under the American flag for a short period of time. The best translation, interpretation really, I found online is:
... As a French speaking Canadian I am able to ''translate'' the signification of ''nous defions''. This is hard to explain, but this is a mix of ''we dare", "we threaten", "we defy". This is not just daring, but also defy and challenging everything. "Nous defions" sounds like an arrogant challenge to everybody and everything. ...
The flag was flown by the
Special Forces unit given the US counterterrorism mission in the late '70s until another organization dedicated to that purpose, Delta Force, could be formed up and become operational. The flag was being flown by a unit commanded by a Colonel. It drew the ire of the Commanding General (CG) of the 1st Special Operations Command which was the next higher HQ. The CG was hard pressed to tell his subordinate Commander to remove it on a whim. The priority on the Colonel's mission gave him considerable influence with the CG's superiors. Where there's a will; however, there's a way...
So the CG found an Army regulation that says subordinate units may not fly their flags higher than their next higher HQ's. The
spirit of the regulation was intended to mean that subordinate units would not fly their flags on taller flagpoles than their next higher HQ as a matter of protocol. The CG used the
letter of the regulation to force the Colonel to take down his flags
including the American flag; because, the subordinate unit's HQ was uphill [on higher elevation terrain] than the CG's HQ. The difference in elevation was enough that the Colonel would have to had dug a ditch to fly his flags, which would be another violation of regulation.
After Delta Force became operational, the Special Forces counterterrorism element became the model for their Special Operations and Tactics (SOT) course [kinda like civilian SWAT] and the logo is still popular on patches and t-shirts. Hope you enjoyed the story. I was there to see it during the week or two that Nous Défions actually flew in garrison (in addition to the remote training site). Between the thread title and my turning 60 in a couple days, I was reminiscing. [/true story ...]