Cleaver took a job with Bendix in 1968. It was his first job after returning to Kansas City, having finished a sociology degree at Prairie View A & M University. He was doing civil rights organizing for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and needed a job on the side. His position at Bendix was in “quality assurance,” making sure the top-secret parts were sent to the appropriate places.

“He said it was really boring,” says Cleaver's press secretary, Danny Rotert. “But it was a good job. It paid well and allowed him to do his work with the SCLC. He was there for about a year.”

Turk worked at Bendix considerably later, from 1982 to 1985. He had a degree in mechanical engineering and worked as a support engineer to the manufacturing floor. He mentions that the site is now contaminated. “I have a real concern regarding what happens to the site when they do vacate it,” Turk says, referring to the plan – now on hold for financial reasons – to move the manufacturing plant from its Bannister and 95th Street location to a new site off Missouri Highway 150 and Botts Road. “There’s something called berylliosis – from exposure to beryllium – and people have talked to me who worked there for many years who have a real concern about that. I wasn’t on the manufacturing floor so much myself, but at least that’s an area where I have some experience.”

Turk sounded pleased at the idea that the nuclear weapons facility was, at least in this one instance, a proving ground for future politicians.

Rotert said something similar: “It sounds like Bendix is along the road to Congress.”