Pete Wylie, a legendary serviceman from Chester who escaped from a German prison camp during World War II, has died.
David “Pete” Wylie was 96. He died Sunday at a hospital in Lexington.
Wylie was captured by the Germans in December 1944 and escaped with seven other prisoners in April of 1945, according to Wylie himself in previous interviews and information from his obituary.
Wylie was one of a dozen South Carolina men honored by former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley with the South Carolina Prisoner of War Medal in 2015, and received the Bronze Star and other commendations for his bravery, courage and valor.
Chester always had a military legend in Wylie said Al Boyd, a Chester military veteran and activist in veterans affairs.
“This is a man who stayed alive when captured and helped others stay alive,” Boyd said. “Most people will only see that stuff in movies. Pete Wylie did it. He lived it. He is what America is all about.”
Boyd said it plainly: “Pete Wylie was a real American hero.”
Wylie was humble about his World War II endeavors and often said there were others who survived worse in prison camps or did not survive at all, according to Boyd and previous Herald articles.
Wylie had been in combat for years when he was captured in 1944.
In 2013, Wylie told The Herald he was captured and for months was marched and starved in a German prison camp. He ate nothing but a few rotten potatoes.
“Freedom is one of those things you sure know when you don’t have it,” Wylie told The Herald in 2013. “I treasure it.”
Wylie was a student at Clemson University when he went to war and, after the war finished, he finished Clemson and worked for the schools’ agricultural extension service in Chester County for decades. He was a cattle farmer and active in church and civic affairs in Chester County.
The funeral Thursday is private because of COVID, according to Boyd and the obituary from Barron Funeral Home in Chester.
The service will have military honors and is expected to include a an Honor Guard and other veterans groups that will honor Wylie and his service, Boyd said.
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