An Air Force Academy cadet who died early Saturday in a crash near Grand Junction was remembered as a determined young man who had a gift for music — particularly the guitar.

“Whatever he made his mind up to do, he did,” said Margo Vernon, the cadet’s aunt.

Peter Quick, a sophomore from Friendship, Tenn., was killed when a semi tractor-trailer slammed into the passenger side of the Saturn SL2 he was riding in, said Trooper Nate Reid, a Colorado State Patrol spokesman.

Quick was on his way back from a concert featuring “Explosions in the Sky,” a rock band from Texas that is known for its roaring guitar melodies — many of which Quick learned to play, Vernon said.

“It’s tough, I tell you,” Vernon said. “He was just a good boy.”

A fellow sophomore cadet, Curtis Berenguer, 19, was cited for careless driving causing death, careless driving causing bodily injury and failure to yield the right of way in connection with the wreck, Reid said.

Berenguer was driving west on Interstate 70’s business route at 12:10 a.m. in Clifton, which is just east of Grand Junction, when he tried to turn left onto F Road, Reid said.

A semi tractor-trailer traveling in the opposite direction collided with the sedan.

Berenguer was not injured, Reid said. Another sophomore cadet riding in the car, J. Michael Downs, 20, was taken to a hospital with moderate injures.

The driver of the semi, Nathan Humphrey, 51, was not injured.

Everyone involved wore seat belts, Reid said.

Quick was an airman first class at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio before entering the academy, said John Van Winkle, an academy spokesman. He was a technical application specialist at the base.

At the academy, Quick focused on computer engineering and played guitar for the Academy’s Show Choir.

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Cadet 3rd Class Peter Quick Photo by Photo from Facebook