It is the tertiary care hospital in the Pacific Rim, serving local active and retired military personnel along with residents of nine U.S. jurisdictions and forces deployed in more than 40 other countries in the region.

[5] In 1920 it was named after a legendary American Civil War surgeon, Brevet Brigadier General Charles Stuart Tripler (1806–1866), who made significant contributions to the development of military medicine.

[5][6] Tripler Army Medical Center was commissioned by Lt. General Robert C. Richardson Jr., who was Military Governor of the Territory of Hawaiʻi during World War II.

[8][9] At the outbreak of World War II, Tripler Army Medical Center had a 450-bed capacity which then expanded to 1,000 beds through the addition of barracks-type buildings.

[5] The General Bronze Corporation, known for New York City's Mies van der Rohe-designed Seagram Building,[10][11] the Atlas[12] and Prometheus[12] bronze sculptures in Rockefeller Center, the bronze doors for the United States Supreme Court and Commerce buildings,[13] the aluminum windows for the United Nations Secretariat,[14][15][16] Chase Manhattan Bank,[17][18] fabricated the aluminum windows for the Tripler Army Base Hospital[19] In 1959, the original hospital was demolished to make way for expansion of Moanalua Road (now Interstate H-201).