Sheean's brother in arms speaks of pair's close bond

They vowed to remain bachelors until they went to war, for fear that they'd return to partners who had moved on.

"We had a great solemn session," Jack Bird, an able seaman, says. "We all clapped hands and made a vow that that's what we'll do."

Bird's companions were Teddy Sheean and his older brother Thomas 'Mick' Sheean.

They hadn't known each other until they'd met at the HMAS Derwent naval base in Hobart when they were drafted.

Bird, who, along with Teddy, was just 17 at the time, had come from Pipers Brook, while the Sheeans came from Lower Barrington, further west.

Upon arriving at the base, Bird - now 96 and living in Norwood - spotted the fresh-faced Teddy.

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"There was sitting Teddy and he was kitted up and all that," Bird says.

"He said, 'What are you doing?' And I said, 'I'm joining the navy'. He said, 'Well, sit down there. My brother will be in soon'.

"We had nothing to do. And we used to talk pretty serious stuff."

A campaign has raged for nearly two decades to have Teddy recognised with Australia's highest military honour for his courageous - and ultimately fatal - effort to protect his shipmates in the Arafura Sea in 1942.

A report on his actions from the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal advised the federal government last year that the Governor-General should recommend to the Queen that Teddy be posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross. But the government has ignored the recommendation, infuriating Teddy's nephew Garry Ivory and state Veterans' Affairs Minister Guy Barnett.

In 2013, the tribunal completed a previous review of the courageous acts of Teddy and 12 other naval and military personnel, concluding that he should not be given further recognition for his bravery.

Bird speaks fondly of his old friend, recalling how he always used to wear his hat forward and could scrap with the best of them.

"He was a good mate," Bird says. "He could fight like a thrashing machine, for one thing."

The pair would let off steam together at Hobart watering holes, forging a close bond in the process.

Teddy and Bird - whose friends called him 'Birdy' - were both drafted to minesweepers that would patrol the south coast of Tasmania. Mick, a Stoker Class II, was drafted to the HMAS Arcadia, bound for England.

"We were on the two minesweepers chasing the Germans out of Storm Bay," Bird says. "We used to go down as far as Maatsuyker Island."

"The mines had been mainly cleaned out. It was a bit of a show. We got a couple of mines and shot them."

The young seamen-in-training were then whisked off to the Flinders Naval Depot on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, where they prepared to go to war.

"There were 44 of us there - 22 in two classes," Bird says. "I was there about eight months altogether."

Both Teddy and Bird - who went on to attain the ranks of ordinary seaman and able seaman, respectively - were eventually drafted to the HMAS Armidale. But Bird's superiors had an issue with the state of his teeth.

"They reckoned they were rotten so they pulled them out," he says. "Three a day until they'd gone."

"And I said, 'You'd better leave us the bottom ones'."

"But it did me a good trick in the finish because it put me off the Armidale. I said to the doc, 'That knocks me back doesn't it, doc?' He said, 'Yep'."

It was then that Bird tried to convince Teddy not to go on the Armidale.

"I said to Teddy, 'Don't go, mate' and he said, 'It'll do me'," Bird says.

"I said, 'Can't you think of some reason not to?' And he said, 'No, I can't. And I'm not going your way where they pull my teeth out'."

Bird would go on to serve on both the HMAS Manoora and the HMAS Westralia.

He would see home again. His friend wouldn't.

Teddy's heroic last stand took place not long before 2pm on December 1, 1942, when at least 13 Japanese aircraft attacked the Armidale off the coast of present-day East Timor. In an attempt to protect his shipmates, he strapped himself to an anti-aircraft gun and fired at the bombers despite having been wounded. There were just 49 survivors from the Armidale. Teddy was Mentioned in Dispatches for his acts of bravery.

Bird recalls learning of the news of Teddy's death from the signalman on the Manoora.

"You'd have to go up and ask the signalman anything you wanted to know," he says.

Bird says he is incensed at the decision not to honour Teddy with a posthumous Victoria Cross for his heroics.

"I could fight them," he says of those in Canberra who ultimately made the call. "And I couldn't fight my way out of a wet paper bag now."

"I would have whacked them right between the eyes."

He says that people who served in the navy were "treated like rubbish" when it came to being properly recognised for their gallantry.

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