She was laid down as a Type C2-S-AJ3 ship under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1399) on 17 July 1944 at Wilmington, North Carolina, by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company; launched on 5 October 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Ruth E. McInnis, the wife of J. Frank McInnis who was in charge of the construction of all Maritime Commission ships built on the east coast; and placed in service on 19 October.

Woodford transited the Panama Canal on 3 May and spent two days at Balboa before heading for Pearl Harbor in company with the submarines Runner (SS-476), Moray (SS-300), and Carp (SS-338).

Also, while en route, the ships received the news that President Harry S. Truman had declared 8 May 1945 as "V-E Day", marking the victorious conclusion of the war with Germany.

Reaching Ulithi on 14 June, Woodford subsequently joined Convoy UOK-27 headed for Okinawa, but was again rerouted – this time to Kerama Retto, to await orders for discharge of her "high priority" cargo.

During her stay, she went to general quarters 21 times because of alerts or actual enemy attacks – an uncomfortable situation for a ship laden with ammunition.

Woodford's commanding officer recounted that "whistles and sirens sounded in blasts of raucous joy, drowning out the glad shouts that went up from thousands of men."

Shifting to Cebu soon thereafter, TransRon 13 loaded the men and equipment of the Americal Division – part of the force slated to occupy the former enemy's capital.

Woodford and her consorts subsequently sailed for Tokyo Bay, reaching that body of water on 8 September 1945 – six days after the formal Japanese surrender ceremony on board the battleship Missouri.

As the ship's commanding officer later reported: "The cost of the all-night vigil was happily no more, however, then a loss of sleep for all hands; not a shot was fired nor a saboteur discovered."

At 1100 on 14 December, with a homeward-bound pennant at the gaff, Woodford stood put to sea to begin the 6,047-mile passage to San Diego; and she reached her destination on the last day of 1945.

After discharging cargo and disembarking her passengers, Woodford underwent voyage repairs at San Francisco into February 1946 before she sailed for the east coast of the United States.