Mr Logan's father Samuel Logan was aboard the USS Peary destroyer when it was bombed and sank in Darwin Harbour on February 19, 1942, the first and largest ever enemy attack on Australia soil and first of more than 100 air raids.

When the ship was bombed Mr Logan emerged from where he had been working below to find most of his fellow sailors already dead.

"My dad jumped in the water which was on fire, I guess the whole bay was on fire as the Japanese bombed six oil tankers," Sam Jr told reporters.

"He jumped in the oil and burnt his hands, back, his chest."

He was badly burnt but a nearby hospital ship picked him up and he was sent to a hospital in Melbourne, later telling Collier's magazine in the US, "I'll never have enough words to fully praise the kindness and great efforts of the Australians."

Mr Logan narrowly avoided death more than once, having been taken as a prisoner of war and tortured when his US naval ship anchored off Shanghai was boarded by Japanese forces in late 1941.

He and another American friend overpowered a guard, escaped through a sewer and jumped on a Dutch barge that took them to the Philippines where they found US troops.

He was later on another ship that was blown up, meaning he survived despite being on board two destroyed ships and one captured ship before dying in 2001, aged 84.

Sam Jr, who also served in the navy, took what he described as an emotional cruise on Darwin Harbour on Wednesday where the wreck of the USS Peary still sits, and threw flowers into the water.

"My dad lived but all those folks died to keep Australia as Australia, to keep the United States as the United States," he said.

"We still have our freedoms and you have to honour the people that protected us from losing our democracies, they don't die as Republicans or Democrats they die for their country."

Sam Jr was a guest of honour at a commemorative service at The Cenotaph along with two Bombing of Darwin veterans, Basil Stahl and Mervyn Ey, joined by locals and visitors from around Australia and the world.

Northern Territory acting Chief Minister Nicole Manison paid tribute to him and the Australia-US alliance, saying it was "a story about service, a story about friendship, a story about shared beliefs".

Australian Associated Press