Sheean was a sailor from Latrobe, Tasmania, who, almost 80 years ago, sacrificed his life fending off marauding Japanese aircraft as they strafed his HMAS Armidale shipmates in the water while the corvette sunk.

For feeble reasons, this 18-year-old was awarded a low grade recognition for his actions which in any other military would have deserved the nation's highest honour.

Last year in Hobart the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal held a merits review of Sheean's actions to decide if he was cheated out of a Victoria Cross.

Since the two-day review, held in Hobart's Town Hall on March 26-27 last year there has been silence from the tribunal, the navy and the Morrison Government.

They let Sheean down in 1942 and they're still doing it.

The navy brass thinks he's a heroic role model for all modern sailors but won't bother to push for a VC.

This is a terrible miscarriage of justice.

Some people's eyes glaze over when they hear the name Sheean, but that's the whole point.

This case has dragged on for generations.

The navy even named one of their submarines after him, but they're stuck in the past.

Sheean joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1941 aged 17 years and was posted to his first ship, HMAS Armidale, months later.

Whilst on a resupply and evacuation mission to Japanese-occupied Timor on December 1, 1942, the Armidale was attacked by Japanese aircraft and hit by two aircraft-launched torpedoes.

With the ship sinking fast, Teddy Sheean, who had been wounded during the attack, made his way to the side of the doomed vessel on the order to abandon ship, but when he saw his crewmates being strafed in the water he changed his mind and strapped himself into an Oerlikon machine gun.

He was wounded again but kept firing as the ship sank. He shot down one plane and disabled another.

Survivors said they saw tracer bullets rising from the sea as the ship sank.

The commander of HMAS Armidale, Lt Cdr David H Richards, who survived the attack, was only authorised to forward Sheean's name to the British Admiralty for an award.

Richards was not allowed to make a recommendation and unlike the army and air force, the Australian Government had to rely on the British Admiralty for action on Sheean.

With England fighting for survival in Europe, the actions of a colonial teenage sailor off the coast of Northern Australia was hardly a priority in London.

Cdr Richards reported: "Ordinary Seaman Sheean, although wounded, remained at his post at the after Oerlikon, and was responsible for bringing down one enemy bomber. He continued firing until he was killed at his gun."

That was it. Brief and factual.

An Australian Victoria Cross can be awarded for one of three criteria: The most conspicuous gallantry; or, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice; or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy.

Sheean met all three criteria.

Imagine the scene as Armidale sunk: flames and blinding, choking smoke; unbearable noise; panicked crew-mates desperately trying to abandon ship, only to witness what was happening to those already in the water with their mates being strafed.

They were alone in a desolate sea.

No support anywhere from the navy or the RAAF, and 13 enemy aircraft determined to sink a warship and kill all her crew.

A number of those who abandoned ship, including the skipper, survived the war to tell the story. Sheean would have known that there was no hope of survival by staying aboard the Armidale.

He decided to fight on.

He was now a prime target.

He would have known he would die in the next few minutes.

Sheean had cheated death before, as a sailor belonging to the ferry HMAS Kuttabul that was sunk in Sydney Harbour with the loss of 21 sailors, during the brazen attack by Japanese midget submarines.

He would have been asleep on the ferry, but as fate would dictate he was on leave in Tasmania at the time.

He had ample time on the Armidale to cheat death a second time, and the temptation to jump ship would have been enormous.

The silence from the Australian Government is deafening.

What more did this teenager have to do, for his actions to be properly recognised?

There are 100 Australian Victoria Cross recipients, with 96 awarded under the old British imperial system and four under the revamped Australian Victoria Cross award.

However, inexplicably, servicemen and women of the Royal Australian Navy have never been awarded a VC, since Queen Victoria created it in 1856.