Paul Leroy Woodard

PAUL LEROY WOODARD was born on July 8, 1935 in Downington, Pennsylvania.

Paul Leroy Woodard enlisted in the United States Marine Corps around 1954. His hometown of record was Camden, New Jersey, where, in the late 1940s, there were three Woodard families, one in the 700 block of division Street, one in the 1100 block of South 2nd Street, and the third in the 2000 block of Kossuth Street.

Paul Woodard last reenlisted on January 16, 1963 in Philadelphia PA. He arrived in Vietnam on August 20 1967 where he was assigned for duty and served with Company A, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. A career Marine, he had been promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant by March of 1968. During the month of March the Battalion was located at a strongpoint northwest of the Khe Sanh Combat Base in Huong Hoa District in northern Quang Tri Province. The Marines were participating in ongoing Operation SCOTLAND and on March 15 defensive positions were hit with several barrages of NVA 82mm mortar fire, one of these incoming hostile rounds and its exploding shrapnel killed Staff Sergeant Woodard.

Staff Sergeant Woodard, in charge of the Weapons Platoon, Alpha Company, First Battalion, Ninth Marines, was standing in the entrance to his bunker when a mortar round killed him. A fellow Marine described the incident:

�Staff Sergeant Paul WOODARD�he was killed just five feet away from me that day�took a freak round just as we were going out on patrol.. and WOODY, being the Marine that he was�God bless him�he said, �Carl! Get that helmet on!� I was just getting ready to put it on�and just then the round came in.. It hit on the right-hand side of the trench, right on the top part, and it exploded there, but a freak fragment got him. And what really hurt is WOODY�they had just adopted a baby boy, and WOODY used to send tapes home all the time..�

SSgt Woodard was the husband of Kazuko Woodard and dear father of Danny T.M. Woodard of Jacksonville NC. He was the son of Michelle E. Woodward and Althea Woodard of Camden New Jersey, and at the time of his death a veteran of over fourteen years of service in the U.S Marine Corps.

PAUL LEROY WOODARD
is honored on Panel 44E Line 063 of
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

PAUL LEROY WOODARD
IS REMEMBERED
by his cousin,
SLOGEE SYE