Full Circle for Mick

In very early January of 1904 Fritz Kramer arrived at Tsingtao in northern China. He was working as the supervising engineer for the German engineering company of F.H.Schmidt, which specialised in the building of steel bridge, jetties, railways and canal work. He knew that it was critical for his Chinese workforce to have the Buddhist religion preached to themin order to have harmonious relationships between his workers.So, he hired a Vietnamese Buddhist monk to offer spiritual guidance to his Chinese workforce. At the completion of the railway in early Janaury of1907 and receiving a promotion, from his employer, he was sent to Namibia. In 1922 he and his family moved back to Germany. After WW2 ended, his son who was also named Fritz, migrated to Australiawith his family. In 1967, the grandson of engineer Fritz Kramer, named Michael Kramer lied about his age in order to join the Australian army and take part in the Vietnam War. While serving in the field with the First Batttalion royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) he met Hao Ahn Dung who was the son of the Buddhist monk employed by his grandfather. He and Hoa discussed the Buddhist law of karma and that resulted in Mick promising Hao that upon his return to Australia, he would study and become an engineer with the aim of returning to Vietnam and helping to rebuild the country that he had helped to destroy during the years of 1968 and 1969. Mick did in fact qualify as an engineer, but that took much longer than he thought it would.