''De oppresso liber'' is the motto of the

United States Army Special Forces The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service Berets of the United States Army, headgear, are a special operations special operations force, force of the United States Ar ...

Meaning

United States Army Special Forces tradition

In the United States Army Special Forces, the motto is traditionally believed to mean "to free from oppression" or "to liberate the oppressed" in Latin.

Actual translation

A correct translation of the Latin phrase ''de oppresso liber'' would be "from (being) an oppressed man, (to being) a free one".

Grammatical structure

The preposition ''de'' here means "from" in the sense of a change ''from'' one status to another, not intending ''separation'' from the oppressed, but moving from a source ''in'' the oppressed. Compare Ovid ''Fasti'' 5, 616: ''inque deum de bove versus erat'', "he had been changed from an ox into a god", or Juvenal 7, 197: ''fies de rhetore consul'', "from an orator you will become a consul". ''Oppresso'' is the past participle of ''opprimere'' ("to oppress") in the ablative case as governed by ''de'', meaning "an oppressed person". The adjective ''Liber'' is in the nominative case, "a free person".

Similar phrases

The motto resembles a quote from

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...

: ''corripiendi sunt inquieti, ..oppressi liberandi'', "the turbulent have to be corrected, ..the oppressed to be liberated". See also

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

1:17:'' subvenite oppresso'', "relieve the oppressed".

Lineage

The phrase stems from the exploits of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

Jedburgh Jedburgh (; gd, Deadard; sco, Jeddart or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the historic county of Roxburghshire, the name of which was randomly chosen for Operation Jedburgh in su ...

/Sussex Teams operating behind the lines in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

Aaron Bank Aaron Bank (November 23, 1902 – April 1, 2004) was a United States Army colonel who founded the US Army Special Forces, commonly known as the "Green Berets". He is also known for his exploits as an OSS officer during World War II, when h ...

, father of

, and his teams enabled the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

to grow and oppose the occupying

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

. The unconventional warfare tactics of Colonel Bank differed from the conventional warfare tactics of the rest of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in that they included clandestine support for one side of an existing conflict and that they were subversive to the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

forces in power.

Sculpture

The sculpture '' America's Response Monument'' is subtitled ''De Oppresso Liber''. It is a life-and-a-half scale bronze statue located in the West Street lobby of One World Financial Center opposite

Ground Zero In relation to nuclear explosions and other large bombs, ground zero (also called surface zero) is the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ''ground zero'' is the point on the ground ...

in New York City. Unofficially known as the ''Horse Soldier Statue'', it is the first public monument dedicated to the United States Special Forces and commemorates the servicemen and women of America’s Special Operations response to 9/11, including those who fought in the early days of

Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was the official name used synonymously by the U.S. government for both the War in Afghanistan (2001–2014) and the larger-scale Global War on Terrorism. On 7 October 2001, in response to the September 11 at ...

, which led to the initial defeat of the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

in Afghanistan. It was conceived by a private citizen, sculptor Douwe Blumberg, and commissioned by an anonymous group of

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

bankers who lost friends in the 9/11 attacks. The statue was dedicated on November 11, 2011 in a ceremony led by Vice President Joe Biden and Lt. Gen. John Mulholland, commander of Special Operations Command.

Legacy

The distinct unit insignia inspired that of the

65th Airborne Special Forces Brigade 65th Airborne Special Forces Brigade ( fa, تیپ ۶۵ نیروهای ویژه هوابرد), or the ''NOHED'' Brigade (), is an airborne, special forces unit of the Iranian Army established in 1959. The unit's first operation was during the Dhof ...

of Iran, the establishment of which was assisted by advisors from the

John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School The U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (SWCS) – known informally as "Swick" – primarily trains and educates United States Army personnel for the United States Army Special Operations Command and United States Specia ...

before the

1979 Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

References

External links

De Oppresso Liber by Kentucky Senator Mitch Mcconnell (Archived)
{{US Army SFG Latin mottos Special Operations Forces of the United States