Leslie Eugene Shopfner was born May 14, 1927 at Fort Smith, Sebastian Co., Ar. to Andrew & Mildred Maxey Shopfner. Leslie married Anna Beth Robertson on June 16, 1948 at Fort Smith, Sebastian, Arkansas. No draft registration card has been found for Leslie. He enlisted in the US Navy June 15, 1945 just months before the end of the war. He served until July 30, 1946 on the USS Tranquility with his final rank being Sf3c (Shipfitter Third Class). The USS Tranquility was commissioned on 24 April 1945, as a hospital ship with a bed capacity of 802 and a complement of 568, Tranquility was one of the first six fully air conditioned ships in the Navy. She was equipped with 85,000 cubic feet (2,400 m3) of medical storage space, and a 100 bed field hospital. Tranquility got underway from Hampton Roads on 5 May 1945 for shakedown trials and assignment to the Pacific Fleet to provide hospital services, consultation, preventative medicine and casualty evacuation. Tranquility began service as a base hospital at Ulithi and was dispatched on 3 August 1945 to the Palau Islands to receive the survivors from the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) and transport them to Guam. Tranquility was then assigned to assist the 3rd Fleet by returning 766 patients from Guam to the US. On 26 September 1945 she was assigned to Operation Magic Carpet to return troops from overseas to the US. Leslie Eugene Shopfner passed away June 18, 1999 and was buried in the National Cemetery in Fort Smith, Arkansas. USS Tranquility 1945 1945 1946