LYNN — The Valhalla Marine Society honored Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Oswald and celebrated the U.S. Marine Corps’ 249th birthday on Sunday.

Desert Storm veteran Sgt. Ed Pettipas said the event began five years ago with 10 to 15 members of the Lynn Police Department who served in the Marines Corps and now serve the community.

The group, now formally known as the Valhalla Marine Society, has since expanded to include members of the Lynn Fire Department and friends of other veterans, Pettipas said. They meet every year to celebrate the Marine Corps’ birthday and honor one another.

This year, the group honored Oswald, a Marine Corps veteran who started the Lynn English JROTC in 1995. He began his service in 1970, moved to Lynn to begin the JROTC program in 1995, and retired in 2021.

Pfc. Mike Crosby was a junior at Lynn English when he first met Oswald in 1995 during his lunch period. He was the first student to join the program and was eventually named Cadet Sgt. Maj. of the program.

“From there, the program developed through the leadership, guidance, and mentorship of Sgt. Maj. Oswald,” Crosby said.

He said Oswald taught the cadets about community service and stood as a positive role model to them, many of whom were inner-city students looking for guidance.

“They need that one positive interaction in their life to get them on track,” Crosby said. “He was it. He was that positive. That program was that positive.”

Oswald said he was surprised and did not know he was being honored at the event.

“I don’t have to be honored. I’m just honored being around a bunch of Marines and celebrating the birthday,” he said. “But it was, it was a great honor… It means more for my family than it does for me, because my family lived the Marine Corps just as long as I lived the Marine Corps.”

He said it meant the most to be honored by many of his former students who went on to join the Marines and now serve in the police or fire department.

“It’s heartwarming,” Oswald said. “I literally accomplished something by teaching them when they were a student at school, and they carried on the legacy of the Marine Corps, and now they’re protecting the citizens of this great city of Lynn.

“The city is so blessed to have these young men and women serve them to protect them,” he added.