If troops in Alaska wanted to talk to someone pretty high up the food chain, they got their wish Friday.

It was a rare visit from Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff paid a visit to Fort Richardson Friday to field questions from Alaska’s military.

Pace has been the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since September of 2005. His military career started in Vietnam, and he has spent the past 39 years serving in many different arenas.

Much of Friday's conversation focused on the war in Iraq. One military member asked about the recent announcement by England Prime Minister Tony Blair that his troops will begin their pullout from the war.

Pace told the crowd the announcement came as no surprise. He says the British pullout is part of a larger plan to start putting more responsibility back onto the Iraqis.

Pace also fielded questions about plans to boost the number of active duty Army and Marine Corps members. One soldier asked if more brigades will lead to shorter deployments.

Pace said, "The short answer is, the intent of increasing the size of the Army and Marine corps is to do both shorten the tour lengths that troops are on and increase the dwell time between deployments."

Pace said, "It would be so much better if we're able to help countries that are on the cusp of a problem to be able to strengthen themselves now and prevent terrorism from taking route, root, rather than having to go in and kick them out and then having to repair the damage and everything else that goes with it."

Pace attended an awards ceremony in Fairbanks before coming down to Anchorage. He will be attending a salute to the military ball Friday night.

Pace didn't specifically say anything about the troop levels in Iraq but he did talk about the plan to boost the number of active duty and reserve forces. Pace says the goal is to have 48 active duty Army brigades. That would allow for one-year deployments with two-year rest periods in between.

For the Army reserves the plan is actually to cut the number of brigades but put them on a rotation of one-year deployment with a five-year break.