Armed Forces Retirement Home’s COO sexually harassed employees, inspector general finds

The former chief operating officer of the Armed Forces Retirement Home sexually harassed three employees and retaliated against one employee when she rejected his sexual advances, according to a report from the Department of Defense inspector general.

James M. Branham resigned from his position as the No. 2 official at the Defense Department’s Armed Forces Retirement Home Nov. 9, 2021, according to the report, released Wednesday. A new COO was appointed in December.

AFRH is open primarily to certain retired and former enlisted members and their spouses, with campuses in Washington, D.C., and Gulfport, Mississippi. Branham worked at the Washington campus.

“We find his behavior particularly egregious given his position as the AFRH COO and the authority he held over the subordinate female employees,” the investigators wrote.

Officials at the Armed Forces Retirement Home declined to comment on whether any legal action will be pursued against Branham, citing policy. The DoD investigators stated they will forward their report to Washington Headquarters Services for inclusion in Branham’s personnel file.

The headquarters is a DoD field activity that provide administrative and management support to multiple DoD components and military departments in the National Capital Region.

“I commend the three employees who cooperated in this investigation and reported what was happening to them,” said Armed Forces Retirement Home CEO Stephen T. Rippe in an email to Military Times. “No one should be harassed in the workplace — ever. This case is especially troubling because it involved the Home’s leadership. Our employees and residents should expect the very best from their leaders, who should hold themselves to the highest possible standard.

“As this report makes clear, that did not happen in this case and I stand firmly by the report’s conclusion.” He noted that “despite this failure of leadership by an individual, the report did not fault the Home’s polices and procedures nor offer any recommendations for improvement.”

Branham could not be reached for comment.

“Mr. Branham’s actions created an intimidating, hostile and offensive work environment that made these female employees uncomfortable or caused them distress,” the DoD IG report stated. They also found that he made reprisals against one of the employees, treating her differently from others when it came to quarantining and being allowed to telework during the first months of the pandemic.

Branham, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, started as COO at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in February 2018, in the midst of financial turmoil at AFRH. The previous COO was fired in September, 2017 by a DoD official who cited his unwillingness to shore up the finances of the agency’s two homes.

In addition to residents’ fees, revenue sharing and leasing agreements, donors and the AFRH trust fund, the homes relies on the 50- -a-month paycheck deduction from active-duty enlisted members and the revenue from fines imposed on enlisted members for disciplinary violations.

The DoD hotline received a complaint against Branham Aug. 15, 2020, alleging he had sexually harassed subordinate female employees and took reprisal actions against one of the employees because she rejected his sexual advances. After initiating the investigation on Nov. 10, 2020, the inspector general reviewed more than 200,000 DoD records, including emails and attached documents and photos, and interviewed the person who filed the complaint as well as eight other employees.

The investigators made no recommendations regarding any remedies for the employee who suffered reprisals — identified as Employee 2 — because she has left the organization for another full-time position elsewhere.

Branham began dating one of his subordinates in 2019, identified as Employee 1, after he asked her to dinner. Investigators reviewed numerous emails between she and Branham, who used his official government email. They also found five photographs that Branham forwarded from his personal email account to his government email account that appeared to be that employee “in various states of dress or undress.”

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