This article was published in the daily newspaper The Daily News, Galveston County, Texas, USA, on February 11, 2006.
By Mason Lerner
The Daily News
Dawna Carroll doesn't believe in little green men. But she does believe in really "hot" aliens. And she said she has been waiting for them to show up on earth for quite some time.
That might be why she has been so curious about the bright light she has seen in the eastern skies recently.
Carroll drives a street-sweeping truck during the night-shift for a company in La Porte. She said the job gives her plenty of time to study the night sky.
"I'm a stargazer," she said. "But I've never seen anything like this before."
NASA spokeswoman Kylie Clem said NASA had received a handful of calls inquiring about the light. That might not be a surprise, because it is probably fair to say this is the type of thing inquiring minds want to know about.
Clem said she had no information on the object.
"It wasn't anything we were tracking," she said.
She said it was possible people were seeing some natural phenomenon.
Caroll said she is able to see the bright light at the beginning of her shift all the way until she makes her nightly journey down the isolated stretch of Red Bluff that leads to her home in Bacliff.
"I don't want to say it's a UFO, but hey, I'd buy it," she said.
Caroll described the object as looking like a big peace sign.
"It has two rays of light that make it look like one of those peace signs we used to make in the '60s," she said.
Is it possible that it was something she did in the '60s that is making her see peace signs hanging in the air in the 21st century?
"I did hang out with a lot of people that liked to feel good," she said.
Carroll admitted she has been intrigued by extraterrestrial life for a long time. She said it would be arrogant to assume we are alone in the universe. She added that she believes the aliens will look a lot different than the depictions we are used to.
"They will be much more beautiful than us," she said.
Space Center Houston Spokesman Roger Bornstein said he didn't field any phone calls about the unidentified shining object. He said he does get similar phone calls from time to time though, and usually there is a simple explanation.
Does he think that means it won't be necessary for Galveston County residents to stock up on food and water just in case there is an alien armada on the horizon poised to invade?
"I think we've done that enough this year," he said.
Wasn't that for the hurricanes?
"That's what you say," he said with a chuckle.
