Gun Battle Left On Answering Machine

When Sandie Petee and her husband Jeff arrived home from shopping last month in Otis, Oregon, they discovered that they had received a message from their son Stephen Phillips, who is serving with the Army in Afghanistan. However, this was not the usual morale boosting message of love and thanks that they had come expect. It was an uncensored recording of the war.

Stephen had spoken to his parents only hours earlier before being called into action with his unit. During an ensuing gun battle with insurgents, Mr Phillips accidentally pressed the redial button on his phone, leaving a 3 minute long recording of the battle. After listening to the message, Stephen's parents desperately tried contacting him for hours before determining that he was OK. After learning about the message, their son's reaction was that of embarrassment, saying "Don't let Grandma Listen to it". The phone message was posted on youtube late last month and has received over 200,000 views since then. It can be heard below. [via BBC]