Army Doctor Speaks Out on Substance Treatment Abuse

Military doctor blames Army addiction program for 2 deaths 
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
May 14, 2015

The Army Substance Abuse Program fell short for Army Specialist Christopher Hodges who later ended up on an expressway shooting at cars. During the shooting he killed a police officer, then himself.
USA TODAY

FORT GORDON, Ga. — Army psychiatrist Patrick Lillard still anguishes over that night four years ago, when a drunken soldier shot to death a sheriff's deputy along a shoulder of an expressway outside this base and then turned the assault rifle on himself.

Now Lillard has made an extraordinary decision to speak out about the case: If only the Army had listened to him, Spc. Christopher Hodges would have been in a hospital for alcohol addiction and two lives could have been saved.

Twice before the shootings, Lillard urged that Hodges, 26, an Iraq War veteran, receive at least a month of intensive treatment. Twice his recommendations were ignored by an Army substance abuse program that allows officers without a medical background to overrule a doctor.

"Two people died, and it could have been prevented," Lillard told USA TODAY. He called on the military to "step up — 'man up,' as they say in the Army — and admit this was a tragic mistake, or error, or whatever word they want to use. Take responsibility. Explain in plain language to the family of Christopher Hodges and the police officer and make sure it does not happen again."

USA TODAY reported in March that the Army's substance abuse program is in disarray, with thousands of soldiers turned away from needed treatment, dozens of suicides linked to poor care and too few qualified counselors. The Army responded to the story by ordering an ongoing investigation of all 54 substance abuse outpatient clinics.
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