Parents hear Afghan gun battle on voice mail

updated 9:22 p.m. ET May 6, 2008

OTIS, Ore. - An Oregon couple checking their voice mail found a frightening three-minute recording of their son caught in a battle in Afghanistan.

Stephen Phillips, 22, and other soldiers in his Army MP company were battling insurgents when his phone was pressed against his Humvee. It redialed and called his parents in the small Oregon town of Otis.

Most of the sounds were gunfire, but shouts could be heard, including, "More ammo! More ammo!"

"At the end, you could hear a guy saying 'Incoming! RPG!' And then it cut off," John Petee, Phillips' brother, told KPTV-TV in Portland.

Phillips' mother, Sandie Petee, and her husband, Jeff Petee, were not at home at the time of the call. When they checked their voice mail, they heard the shooting.

"His friend died a year ago in Iraq and I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, this may be the last time I hear my son's voice on the phone,'" Sandie Petee said.

Nobody was wounded or killed in his son's unit during the firefight, Jeff Petee said. He said "It's something a parent really doesn't want to hear. It's a heck of a message to get from your son in Afghanistan."

As soon as the voice mail stopped playing, the Petees began trying to reach their son in Afghanistan.

"I finally got a hold of him," Sandie Petee said. "He was embarrassed, he said, 'Don't let Grandma hear it.'"

Her son is serving with the Army 546th MP Company 3rd Platoon and has been in Afghanistan about a year, his father said. Phillips could return to Fort Stewart in Georgia next week, his family said.

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