FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) – The chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told soldiers at a North Carolina Army post on Wednesday that the military’s policy banning gays from serving openly will likely go away, but not immediately.

Adm. Michael Mullen said soldiers should participate in the Defense Department’s survey to determine how to implement new rules. That study, due in December, is based on a current survey of troops and their families.

“Believe me their voices are going to matter in terms of implementation, which is what the review and study was all about,” Mullen told reporters after the meeting at Fort Bragg. “Their voices are absolutely vital and will be incorporated to how we move forward if and when the law changes.”

Mullen, the president’s chief military adviser, told the soldiers that the law violated the military’s values because it forces servicemembers to lie about their sexual orientation. President Barack Obama has vowed to help repeal the 1993 law, which prohibits the military from asking service members whether they are gay, but bans homosexual activity and requires that gay troops not discuss their sexual orientation.

His comments were prompted by a soldier’s question on whether policymakers understood the impact of changing the decades-old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. It was the last question in an “All Hands Call” with Fort Bragg soldiers. Other questions from soldiers focused on problems with overcrowding at the base and health care.

Pfc. Daniel Callaghan, 23 from Kalamazoo, Mich., said repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy won’t affect the way he treats his unit mates.

“When you put on the uniform, you stop being an individual. You are a soldier first,” Callaghan said.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mullen told soldiers the deployment cycle will slow down in the next few years as the Army’s expansion will allow soldiers to spend twice as much time at home.

“We’re moving to a point in over the next 12 to 24 months that units will be home two years before they have to deploy again for a year. The same is true in the Marine Corps where they’ve been seven out and seven back and that is starting to move to a point where they will be out seven and back 14,” Mullen said.

The only exception are Special Forces units, which continue to be in high demand in Iraq, Afghanistan and worldwide.

“Their demands have been as high or higher than any we’ve had in the military and I think they will be some of the last forces out of Iraq. The demands on them will continue,” he said.

Before meeting with soldiers, Mullen spent time with Army special operations soldiers, wounded warriors and widows. He also visited the new memorial wall outside the Army Special Operations headquarters on Fort Bragg.