USS Woodson (DE-359) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort acquired by the United States Navy during World War II.

During 1940 and 1941, he served successively in VU-1, the destroyer USS Benham and at the naval air stations located at Norfolk, Virginia, and Pensacola.

As a Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber pilot in VT-8, Woodson took part in the pivotal Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942.

En route to her training area in the vicinity of Bermuda, she assisted the survivors of the destroyer Warrington which had sunk off the U.S. East Coast during a hurricane.

After two weeks of post-shakedown availability, she stood out of Boston on 6 November, bound for Norfolk where she spent the remainder of the month serving as a school ship for the Operational Training Command, Atlantic Fleet.

Early in April, however, she dropped her runs to New Guinea and limited her operations to escort missions among major ports in the Philippines such as Leyte, Lingayen Gulf, and Manila Bay.

She next returned to Leyte and remained there until 22 October, when she headed back to Okinawa, where she joined another China occupation convoy which sailed in early November.

Stopping at Pearl Harbor en route, Woodson arrived in San Pedro, Los Angeles, on 16 December to begin inactivation overhaul.

Steaming via the Panama Canal, Woodson arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, in mid-September and began local operations.

On 19 October, the warship departed the Newport area to participate in the annual Atlantic Fleet exercises held in the vicinity of Puerto Rico.

Two days later, she became an element of the newly formed Hunter-Killer Group, Atlantic Fleet, under the overall command of Rear Admiral Daniel V. Gallery.

For the next five years, Woodson ranged the length of the Atlantic coast of the United States from Newport in the north to Cuba and the West Indies in the south.

Summer brought a midshipman cruise down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec, Canada, and thence back to Boston and finally to Norfolk.

She arrived at Naples, Italy, on 14 September and, soon thereafter, began a full round of NATO exercises, highlighted by amphibious assault training at Souda Bay, Crete.

For the remainder of her active career, Woodson cruised the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indies training New Orleans–based naval reservists.