We've all done it: pressed redial by mistake on our mobile phones and forced someone to listen to us walking down the street.

A couple from Oregon lived through the ultimate redial nightmare, however, when they found a three-minute answering machine message from their son, a soldier in Afghanistan who had inadvertently called home during a battle.

The family told KPTV, in Portland, Oregon, that Stephen Phillips and comrades in his military police unit were engaged in a gunfight with Taleban insurgents when his phone pressed against his Humvee and redialled his parents in the town of Otis.

Sandie Petee, Mr Phillips's mother, and her husband, Jeff Petee, were out at the time but returned to find the message. They could hear shooting, swearing and desperate pleas for more ammunition.

"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.

"They were pinned down and apparently his barrel was overheating," said Jeff Petee. "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. They figured that he had tried to call home earlier that day but didn't leave a message.

They eventually reached their son two hours later. "He was embarrassed. He said, 'Don't let Grandma hear it'," Ms Petee said.

Mr Phillips is scheduled to return home next month, when his tour is complete.

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