Hospital Apprentice First Class Woods was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for braving the fire of Japanese snipers to rescue injured Marines in the assault on Gavutu, Solomon Islands, until he himself was mortally wounded.

Woods was reclassified APD-118 on 17 July 1944 and floated to Orange, Texas for completion as a high speed transport by the Consolidated Steel Corporation.

Woods sailed from Norfolk 9 August 1945 and was making her transit of the Panama Canal on the day hostilities ended between Japan and the United States.

Hospital Apprentice Woods died of wounds received in enemy action on 8 August 1942 while serving with the Marines against Japanese forces on Gavutu, Solomon Islands.

On his own courageous initiative, Woods, in an effort to rescue several injured Marines, waded into the sea near a rock cliff where numerous hostile snipers were menacing troops.

Although repeatedly warned of his imminent peril, he refused to abandon his heroic work but continued, less than twenty-five yards from the enemy position, to render medical assistance to the helpless men until he himself was mortally wounded.