Preston — The Norwich Area Veterans Council will mark a mission accomplished Sunday, when the group hosts a memorial dedication ceremony honoring two World War II Navy pilots who were killed in a training collision over Norwich and Preston on Oct. 19, 1944.

Wreckage of the planes flown by Ensign George Kraus and Ensign Merle Longnecker is still visible in a remote, hilly and wooded section of the former Norwich Hospital in Preston, and Norwich Area Veterans Council members annually have visited the site to lay a wreath and conduct a small ceremony. In past years, the group has hosted public walks to the site, but that is getting too difficult now, Veterans Council member John Waggoner of Preston said.

In the summer of 2015, a Veterans Council's World War II Plane Crash Committee started fundraising for a permanent memorial in a much more visible and accessible site at the Preston memorial garden outside Preston Public Library and Town Hall. Waggoner, committee chairman, said the group raised more than $3,500 to commission a memorial granite bench to match other benches at the garden.

The bench will be unveiled during a dedication ceremony at 1 p.m. Sunday outside the Preston Public Library, 389 Route 2, Preston. Waggoner said members of the Norwich Area Veterans Council, local members of Vietnam Veterans of America, Young Marines and perhaps the Silver Dolphins of the U.S. Naval Submarine Base in Groton will participate in the ceremony.

Kraus and Longnecker were not local to southeastern Connecticut, and their dangerous nighttime test flights originated from the Charlestown, R.I., Naval Auxiliary Air Field. But Waggoner said the Norwich Area Veterans Council has been determined to recognize their service and sacrifice as no less important than other wartime casualties.

“They kind of get lost because they were not killed in combat,” Waggoner said. “It's part of our history in Norwich and Preston, because they were killed training for combat. That's why we did this. We thought it was appropriate, because they did sacrifice their lives for their country.”

Kraus, 22, of Wauwatosa, Wis., and Longnecker of New Rockford, N.D., just eight days shy of his 21st birthday, were flying “Hellcat” fighter planes out of Charlestown in a night training exercise on Oct. 19, 1944.

In 2006, the state Department of Economic and Community Development funded a study of the site by Archaeological and Historical Services Inc. The report included detailed explanations of the dangerous night flight training for pilots of Hellcat Grumman F6F-5N fighter planes and what happened the night of Oct. 19, 1944.

On that night, two planes were engaged in pursuit training, when Longnecker sent a radio message “Splash,” meaning he was close enough to attack Kraus' plane. That was the last message heard, as the planes apparently collided over the Laurel Hill section of Norwich and crashed about a quarter mile apart in the woods of the state hospital property.

Preston resident and author Richard Vittorioso researched the pilots' backgrounds, contacted surviving family members and wrote a biography of the two pilots.

“I got a card from Kraus' sister and a card from Longnecker's grandniece and -nephew,” Waggoner said. “It shows that there are relatives, and they are appreciative.”

c.bessette@theday.com