BoneFrog Team,

I have heard from a number of you who have said you love BoneFrog Coffee but feel a little uncomfortable wearing the Bone Frog. I want to address that head-on, from one former Navy SEAL to the people who support our mission every day.

The Bone Frog is not a claim of service. It is not stolen valor. It is a symbol of sacrifice. That is it, plain and simple.

Its roots go back to the original Navy frogmen, the Underwater Demolition Teams of the Second World War. Their mascot was a cartoon frog named Freddy, and he stood for the living: men going into the water. Decades later my teammate, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Keith Kimura, drew that same frog as a skeleton. After Keith's death in a training accident in January 1997, the image became a lasting emblem within the SEAL Teams. One frog for the men who go in. One for the ones who do not come back.

There is one more thing most people never notice. The mark we use is Keith's frog with two changes I made myself. The pelvis is shaped as a Trident. The head is shaped as a Navy anchor. I did not add anything to his drawing. I worked those two emblems into the bones of it, so the frog that stands for the fallen also carries what they earned and the Navy they served in.

When you wear the Bone Frog, you are not pretending to be a SEAL. You are honoring the men who made the ultimate sacrifice. You are carrying their legacy. You are helping make sure their names are spoken and their stories are not forgotten. That is the opposite of stolen valor. That is respect.

I want to be precise about one thing, because it is where the discomfort comes from. Inside the Teams, the Bone Frog tattoo is earned, and it is usually inked where a shirt covers it. If you have read somewhere that only SEALs wear the Bone Frog, that is what was meant, and it is true. The tattoo and the symbol are two different things doing two different jobs. The tattoo says I served alongside them. The symbol on a shirt or a bag says I remember them. Neither one takes anything from the other.

Everyone is welcome to wear it. We encourage you to wear it. Our hope is that the Bone Frog becomes a national symbol, something seen and recognized by more and more Americans as a mark of sacrifice, courage, and the price of freedom.

When someone asks you what it means, tell them. Explain that it honors the service members and Navy SEALs who laid down their lives in combat. The more people who understand that, the more their sacrifices are remembered and the less chance those sacrifices were in vain.

We are deeply grateful for your support. Thank you for standing with us, for honoring our fallen teammates, for saying their names, and for helping their legacies live on.

Wear it proudly. Share the meaning. Keep their memory alive.