Hellraiser in a Helldiver over Cedar Rapids

Posted by Pat Kinney on Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Bob Nejdl, 99, during an oral history interview at his home in rural Ely in July, five weeks before his passing. (Pat Kinney photo)

ELY — Bob Nejdl was a character.

He sure showed that in an oral history interview for the Grout Museum District at his home in July, five weeks before his passing. Fortunately, his colorful stories of derring-do were recorded for posterity — including a wild last plane ride.

The old Navy aviator from World War II got a chance to ride in one of his old craft at an air show in Cedar Rapids a few years ago. He wanted more than a little buzz around the runway.

“I bought a $1,000 ride. Oh hell, I wouldn’t miss it!” Nejdl, 99, said.

Initially, he said, “I was afraid I wasn’t nimble enough,” to get in the plane. But with a little help from a group of friends that he’d asked to tag along, they lowered him into the cockpit in the observer/tail gunner position of the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, a carrier-based Navy dive bomber. Bob trained diver bomber crews during the war.

They flew north from the Eastern Iowa Airport, which is south of Cedar Rapids, over the city, then north and east up First Avenue/Seventh Avenue/U.S.Highway 151 over Marion, and south along Iowa Highway 13 toward the Nejdl home over rural Ely along the Cedar River near Palisades Kepler State Park.

”I said, ‘Now when we get over the Cedar River, I want you to start rocking your wings!’ ” Bob told the pilot.

He had arranged for a family member to sit with his vision-impaired wife Vilma during the ride and tell Vilma when Bob was flew over; he had the pilot rock the wings to let them know it was, in fact, Bob’s plane flying over.

"She couldn’t see it, of course, but she knew it happened,” Bob said.

Then came the real moment of truth.

“On the way back to the airport, I said to the pilot, ‘Why don’t you run this son of a ——- up to 8,000 feet and push over? I wanna feel some Gs!’ “ Bob said, laughing.

“He said, ‘Are you nuts? This plane’s 70 years old!’ “ Bob said.
He smiled.
”I said, ‘Well, I might BE nuts!’ he said.
The pilot met him halfway.

“He got to 4,000 so we could pull a couple of Gs,” Bob said.


Bob Nejdl in the cockpit of a World War II U.S. Navy Helldiver dive bomber at an air show in Cedar Rapids (Courtesy photo)

Nejdl noted the plane was out of the same air group University of Iowa Hawkeye football player Nile Kinnick served in as a a Navy ensign during the war — prior to the Heisman Trophy winner’s death in training flight crash off the coast of Venezuela.

Bob said the Helldiver’s radio equipment was manufactured by Collins Radio in Cedar Rapids, something that had noted with pride to his Navy comrades.

A week before the July interview, Bob participated in an event at the National Czech & Slovak Museum with Czech Republic historian Jiri Kluc, who was interviewing American World War II veterans, particularly those of Czech ancestry like Nejdl, for a research project.


A Curtis SB2C Helldiver like the one Bob Nejdl flew in World War II (Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum)

Nejdl and fellow Czech-ancestry World War II veteran Mike Bisek of Cedar Rapids did a ceremonial “christening” of the English-language release of one of Kluc’s works by pouring over the book a glass of beer manufactured by a brewery in Czech Village.

In the oral history interview, part of the “Voices of Iowa” oral history project of Waterloo’s Grout Museum District and the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum, Bob talked about his military service and his years and a restaurateur and caterer in Cedar Rapids.

Bob and and Vilma operated The Cyclone, a old-fashioned diner, in Czech Village for many years. He also told of the cat-and-mouse between proprietors and authorities during police raids of illegal gambling operations in Czech Village back in the day.

Bob had a good, eventful month. It was his last. He passed away in mid-August. He would have turned 100 this coming February.

Vilma passed away in 2021, a month shy of their 74th wedding anniversary.

His devoted caregiver, Nancy Barta, said Bob, true to form, did not want a funeral when he died. He wanted a party.
He got one, at the American Legion Post in Ely.
If those attending felt a breeze, it might have been Bob pulling a few G’s, rocking those new wings overhead.

Bob Neijdl's passing not long after the interview emphasizes the need for veterans and witnesses to history to tell their stories and have them recorded while they are still here to tell them. Any veteran of any era or branch of service anywhere in Iowa is eligible. Interview subjects receive a complimentary DVD. The interviews are available in the Grout's museum library and for use in exhibits. Those who would like to be interviewed or suggest someone be interviewed should contact historian Bob Neymeyer or oral historian Pat Kinney at (319) 234-6357, or by email at Bob.Neymeyer@gmdistrict.org or Pat.Kinney@gmdistrict.org.