Hawaii has a long and complicated history with the U.S. military. Our island state’s strategic Pacific location render us valuable for national security purposes, and many residents here at least tolerate (if not embrace) the military presence for its contributions to the economy.

But the relationship between the U.S. military and the state’s interests must be a symbiotic one of mutual respect, a shared goal for public health.

That’s why the military’s cloak of secrecy that recently came down about coronavirus cases is disturbing. The directive from Defense Secretary Mark Esper stops public disclosure of military COVID-19 cases at the local level, saying operational security could be compromised. Only national daily totals from each services would be disclosed — but no details on individual unit, base or combatant commands.

That lack of public transparency is counter to information that we as a community should know, in our collective efforts on social distancing to keep the coronavirus at bay.

Lawmakers, on both state and national levels, are rightly pushing back.

“Transparency is important in building trust during a public health crisis,” said U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono. “I think it would be appropriate for the military to report positive COVID-19 cases by service in each state.”

While the state Department of Health does receive the localized military counts to fold into Hawaii’s daily tallies, the public doesn’t know those numbers, or where they are. On Friday, the Star-Advertiser reported from a “U.S. official” that just over 30 of Hawaii’s 442 coronavirus cases through Thursday are military members, dependents or military civilians.

Public knowledge of military numbers is needed to help quantify local efforts, said state Rep. Amy Perruso. “That’s how we’re looking at the curve — and if their (military) curve is spiking, we need to know that.”

The military here contributes to Hawaii in a big way via service-branch members, dependents and military civilians. They are interwoven into our island community: children in Hawaii’s schools, working together in job hubs such as the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, shopping at the Px or Nex exchanges.

As has been said repeatedly: We are all in this together. The military is an integral part of Hawaii’s community. Just as it would help us all to know about a cluster of cases in, say, Hawaii Kai, so it would be useful to know of such a cluster around Hickam. Area-specific mitigations, such as quarantines, could come into play to contain spread, for instance.

Pre-emptive strikes are most effective with optimal intel. The U.S military should know this better than anyone, in armed warfare or against a dangerous coronavirus.