After basic training, Carlos was relocated to San Diego, and assigned to a Destroyer Tender in the Pacific Fleet – the "USS Cape Cod (AD-43)". He won the California state (amateur) Middleweight Boxing Championship in 1983. He set a goal to qualify for the Junior Olympics in boxing, but injured his shoulder in training and was deployed to the Middle East subsequent to the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut on April 18, 1983. His ship was in the Strait of Hormuz when the US Marine barracks (along with the French paratrooper barracks) in Beirut were bombed on October 24, 1983. By 1984, the "Cape Cod" was rotated out of the Persian Gulf. Ashenoff returned to San Diego, and received an honorable discharge.