Did you call him, or did he call you?
Whenever I was in dangerous situations, I would always make a point of calling my loved ones whenever something bad happened, and casually mention the time, so when they heard the bad news, they would realize that my call was after that point, and that I was OK.
Eventually it got to be such a routine that if I called up out of the blue, they would just ask what time it was where I was and we could get off the line.