Brigadier General Woodard enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves in October 1991 and upon completion of bootcamp, Marine Combat Training, and School of Infantry, he was designated as an 0341 (Mortarman). In August 1992, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant through the Platoon Leader’s Class-Law program. After completion of The Basic School and Naval Justice School Basic Lawyer’s Course in 1996, he was designated a Marine Corps judge advocate.
As a judge advocate, Brigadier General Woodard has served as the command staff judge advocate for Battalion, Installation, Group, Division, and Expeditionary Force commands; as the Executive Officer of a deployment Combat Logistics Regiment; as the officer-in-charge of a Joint Law Center and Regional Legal Services Support Section; in numerous litigation billets such as trial counsel, defense counsel, senior trial counsel, senior defense counsel, regional trial counsel, and regional defense counsel; as an Associate Judge and Chief Appellate Judge for the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Military Appeals; as a Circuit Military Judge; and as the Deputy Director Military Justice, Judge Advocate Division.
He has also served as an instructor, evidence division head, and military justice department head at the Naval Justice School; adjunct professor for military justice studies at the Naval War College and the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies; and as a CMC Fellow at the Department of Justice, National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section.
Brigadier General Woodard most recently served as the Deputy Director Military Justice at Judge Advocate Division, Headquarters Marine Corps, where he advised the Staff Judge Advocate to the Commandant of the Marine Corps on all matters involving military justice policy and procedure, and served as the Marine Corps’ representative to the Joint Services Committee on Military Justice.
Brigadier General Woodard was promoted to his current rank and appointed as the Marine Corps’ first Lead Special Trial Counsel on 5 January 2023. As Lead Special Trial Counsel, Brigadier General Woodard will lead the Marine Corps Office of Special Trial Counsel, exercising both operational and administrative control over the personnel and activities of that office.
Brigadier General Woodard’s assignments have included tours at Marine Corps Logistics Base, Albany, Georgia; Camp Pendleton, California; Naval Base, Newport, Rhode Island; Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, North Carolina; multiple tours at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; and multiple tours in the National Capital Region (Headquarters Department of Justice, Washington Navy Yard, the Pentagon, and Henderson Hall). He has twice deployed in support of combat operations.