Ambassador Bishop had visited Central Command in August 1990 , where he worked with military experts to update the embassy 's E & E plan . The first notice that an evacuation of the Mogadishu embassy would be needed came on the morning of 1 January , when the top naval commander at Central Command sent a message to his naval operations staff : " Better have Amphib crowd take a look at a helo NEO of Mogadishu ! time / distance to get there from Masirah OP area . " Following the ambassador 's 2 January evacuation request , the commander of Central Command ordered Air Force aircraft to the region , the movement of amphibious ships to Mogadishu , and requested United States Special Operations Command to prepare for a noncombatant evacuation operation .