Blockships and barriers

Placed to defend the British Navy of both WW1 and 2 in Scapa Flow. I happened to be in Kirkwall at 11:00 and witnessed a silence and respect from all those present, whether intentionally or unintentionally there, as the traffic stopped and people did. Members of my direct family were not soldiers but I remembered them and the countless other civilians unwittingly caught up in a struggle not of their making. Both my Grandpa and my Dad did their best. Grandpa was a leading member of his local Home Guard and who, along with my Granny, coped with the numerous evacuated children who were sent to their school in Lincolnshire. Granny suffered a severe nervous breakdown after the war and was in a nursing home for many years, never the same again. My Dad did his National Service, as did many other men of his generation, and was happy to do his best to get the country back on its feet. They, and countless others, deserve our endless gratitude alongside the soldiers.
The current situation is a walk in the park by comparison and we should, in my opinion, stop moaning and start thinking of everyone else rather more.