Soldier's Pocket Calls Home

[jams]

While in the heat of battle a soldier's phone accidently calls home and leaves a message on his parent's machine.

Afganistan has cell service?




May 8, 2008, 3:08 pm
A Soldier Pocket-Dials His Family, During Battle

By Robert Mackey
Add the increasingly common phenomenon of the accidental mobile phone call, known as a pocket-dial, to the ways in which technology is shrinking the world for military families. The BBC reports:

A U.S. couple checking their answering machine heard a frightening three-minute recording of their son caught in a battle in Afghanistan.
Stephen Phillips, 22, was fighting insurgents when his mobile phone was pressed, causing it to dial his parent’s number in Otis, Oregon.
Most of the sounds were gunfire, but swearing and shouts of “more ammo!” and “incoming!” could also be heard.

The BBC posted a recording of the answering machine message, which has been listened to more than 220,000 times since Mr. Phillips’ brother first posted the audio on YouTube.
The text posted with the audio on YouTube explains that the pocket-dial was most likely the result of the phone redialling the last number that Specialist Phillips had called:

My brother is an M.P. over in Afghanistan. He was on post on April 21st. He decided to give us a call, just to let us know how he was doing.
Nobody was home so he got the answering machine, and hung up. Just then, they started getting shot at. Somehow, his phone re-dialed, and we got this on our answering machine. He is okay.

According to The Oregonian, Specialist Phillips’s parents were concerned that they might actually overhear their son being killed.

“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 told The Associated Press.
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,” Petee said. “It’s a heck of a message to get from your son in Afghanistan.”