There were combat roles as well . In 1983 , a truck bomb demolished the barracks the Marines had secured in Beirut , Lebanon . After moving to the Beirut International Airport and setting up quarters there , Druse militia artillery began harassing the Marines . After consultations with the theater commander , Marine amphibious command and combat engineers , the forward-deployed battalion , NMCB-1 in Rota , Spain , sent in a 70-man AirDet working party with heavy equipment . Construction of artillery-resistant quarters went on from December 1983 until the Marines ' withdrawal in February 1984 . Only one casualty occurred when an equipment operator using a bulldozer to clear fields of fire was wounded by an RPG attack . Seabee EO2 Kirt May received the first Purple Heart awarded to a Seabee since Vietnam
a truck bomb demolished the barracks
1983 Beirut barracks bombings
Seabee