San Marcos, TX – Steve Reed at the Commemorative Air Force Central Texas Wing said he wants to keep Zachary Collie-Moreno’s dream alive.
“We need people like him,” Reed said. “I think he would have been an important person in the future keeping these aircrafts operating.”
Collie-Moreno, 20, died during a plane crash near Oshkosh, Wis., about a month ago. He was riding as a passenger in the plane that the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are now investigating.
Devyn Reiley, a friend of Collie-Moreno, was the pilot of that plane.
Two of his mentors, Reed and Joe Enzminger, said they jumped into action as soon as they heard the news about his death.
“I mean, the very night of the accident, I was trying to make some sense out of this,” Reed said. “I didn’t want him to be forgotten.”
The Commemorative Air Force Central Texas Wing is setting up a scholarship fund in Collie-Moreno’s name. The group is dedicated to aviation, and now, it is also dedicated to inspiring the future of aviation through Zach’s name.
“What we wanted to do for Zach, we’re gonna try to do for as many kids as we can,” Enzminger said. “You see a lot of ourselves in Zach and just young people in aviation in general, and I think that’s what makes his loss kind of hit us all pretty hard.”
Collie-Moreno did not have his pilot’s license but worked closely with jets and planes. In his obituary, the family said Collie-Moreno graduated from Hallmark University Aeronautics Technician School in 2022 with Associate Degrees in Airframe and Powerplant and then was hired as an Air Force jet mechanic for Randolph Air Force Base in 2023. He also volunteered at the Commemorative Air Force.
To learn more about the scholarship, click here.