TEDDY SHEEAN - FOREVER EIGHTEEN

Garth Porter & Lee Kernaghan & Colin Buchanan

The bow cut the swell on a course set for Timor
The Armidale plowed through the waves
The enemy found us, sent bombs and torpedoes
Out-gunned and out-numbered we prayed
Abandon the ship! came the call through the chaos
Jump for your lives, the ship’s going down,

And I saw Teddy Sheean
He was wounded and bleeding, strapped to his oerlikon gun
And he kept on firing as he was dragged under
So noble for someone so young - forever eighteen
We'll never forget Teddy Sheean.

The blood and the oil coated men in the water
The stern rose and then disappeared
We clung to the wreckage and still they came at us
Till the silence of evening drew near
We floated two whalers and a raft from the flotsam
We hung on and waited for help to arrive,

I saw Teddy Sheean
He was wounded and bleeding, strapped to his oerlikon gun
And he kept on firing as he was dragged under
So noble for someone so young - forever eighteen
We'll never forget Teddy Sheean.

The men who survived owe their lives to the lad
The boy who stood strong and held on and fought on till the end

I saw Teddy Sheean
He was wounded and bleeding, strapped to his oerlikon gun
And he kept on firing as he was dragged under
So noble for someone so young - forever eighteen
We'll never forget Teddy Sheean.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QCP8xX6Mmw
Lee Kernaghan sings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z1DxP2YtOU
Teddy’s final service that helped save fellow sailors on the sinking corvette, HMAS Armidale, under Japanese bomber and fighter airfire, in the Timor Sea.
   
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oerlikon_20_mm_cannon
the AA gun Teddy strapped himself into

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Sheean
Teddy’s Story - and Govt Denials for almost 80 years

Teddy was posthumously awarded the VC in August 2020, for his heroic deeds in 1942.
(I note that it took some 78 years for this award to be finally approved, after years of vigorous campaigning. And yet, just recently, an Australian sporting star (born the same year Teddy Sheean died), was awarded yet another gong
(an AC - she already had an MBE and an AO, plus other numerous accolades for her well-deserved tennis prowess).
After retiring in 1977 from being a champion ball-belter, she eventually became a happy-clappy preacher of the same persuasion as our current prime minister and well-known for her outspoken racist and homophobic views.
One can only presume that she is now being rewarded for this ‘christian’? behaviour.
Strange, our societal priorities. And they wonder why so many of us have scant respect for ‘The Authorities’ .....)

Spirit of the Anzacs is an album by Australian country singer, Lee Kernaghan. It was released in Australia in 2015. The deluxe 2017 edition contained 20 songs and I note that we have so far featured 6 of those songs in our Mudcat thread!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfqFDN1WdxI&list=OLAK5uy_lCulVvQDuF2H7-NXFx2im4QcjvQroSZH4


“Teddy Sheean 0003” a song by Greg Wells : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2b1-mIdTzE



R-J