Parents Get Scary War Zone Voice Mail

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

Stephen Phillips 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 coastal town of Otis.

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

"At the end, you could hear a guy saying 'Incoming! RPG!' And then it cut off," said John Petee, Phillips' brother.

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.

Jeff Petee said that he and his wife were getting flowers for the family of his son's friend to mark the first anniversary of his death in Iraq when they missed the call.

"It's something a parent really doesn't want to hear," Jeff Petee said. "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.

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

Stephen Phillips, 22, is serving with the Army 546th MP Company 3rd Platoon and has been in Afghanistan about a year, his father said.

Nobody was wounded or killed in his son's unit during the firefight, Jeff Petee said.

Phillips could return to Fort Stewart in Georgia next week, his family said.