The 'Greatest Generation'

PORTSMOUTH, Va. - The Coast Guard hosted a celebration to honor a Coast Guard WWII veteran on his 100th birthday in Portsmouth, Va.

Linwood "Tick" Thumm and his family joined with Coast Guard personnel at the Portsmouth Federal Building to celebrate his 100 years of life with gifts, sea stories and cake.

Thumm commanded an 83-foot cutter crew based out of Little Creek who spent the first part of WWII escorting convoys from New Jersey to Cape Hatteras, N.C.

He and his crew were credited with a possible kill of a German U-boat and were also commended for saving the lives of an oil tanker crew during a fire. Thumm's crew used a net they fashioned from sheets and blankets to catch survivors as they jumped from the burning tanker.

For more information about Thumm and his service, see the feature story: "100 years and Ticking" at http://www.uscgnews.com/go/doc/4007/2483846/