OTIS, Ore. – A 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 April 21 when his phone was pressed against his Humvee. It redialed and called his parents' home in 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, the soldier's brother, told KPTV-TV in Portland.

His 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,' " Mrs. Petee said.

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

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

Jeff Petee said nobody in his son's unit, which has been in Afghanistan for about a year, was wounded in the firefight.

"It's something a parent really doesn't want to hear," he said. "It's a heck of a message to get from your son in Afghanistan."

The Associated Press