Dire Wolf: Local novelist illustrates challenges of PTSD

“There are legions of wolves in the Mission Mountains and valley and no one can find them because there are 2,000 square miles of nothing.”

Novelist and Retired Army Helicopter pilot Eric Jubb

POLSON – John Johnston’s task is to cope with his PTSD and a marauding wolf pack that seems to possess mystical abilities to avoid humans and kill livestock.

That is the simple premise of Polson author Eric Jubb’s novel Dire Wolf, a self-published book released in the summer of 2013.

“This country has one hell of a problem with PTSD,” Jubb said. “And when those vets get older, society will pay the price for ignoring or not understanding it.”

Jubb, who is semi-retired, managed DRS, a defense contractor in Polson, for 28 years. He’s lived on the shores of Flathead Lake for 30 years.

Jubb would know PTSD and wolves.

He served as an Army and National Guard helicopter pilot. He knows farmers and ranchers who would shoot a wolf on site and has relatives in urban areas who want to protect the lupines at all cost.

“Legends of wolves in Europe make it to the Americas,” Jubb said. “Most biologists say wolves won’t attack humans. But Russians will tell you wolves eat and attack humans.”

The novel starts with Romans and pagans in 17th Century Scotland dealing with a wild, mysterious rogue wolf winding up in modern Montana.

“The wolf we see in Scotland is the same wolf you see at the end of the book in (the Mission Mountains) so you get to see how nature repeats itself,” Jubb said. “Man has always screwed up nature and evolution goes in both directions – it can become more advanced or less advanced.”

First, Jubb teaches a biology lesson.

Dire Wolves existed 10,000 years ago and were larger and more heavily built than the grey wolves that eclipsed them. But the Dire wolves’ size might have worked against them as the game they lived on slowly became smaller.

A wolf needs seven pounds of meat every day to live. Multiply that by a pack of 10 or 12 and they would have to kill and eat nearly 100 pounds of game every day, Jubb said.

“That might be why packs and wolves are smaller today,” he said.

The wolves terrorizing John Johnston seem to be the same ones who brought fear and loathing to the Romans and Scotch ancestors at the start of the book.

The reader could make the argument that the wolves Johnston pursues are physical manifestations of the crippling challenges faced by veterans with PTSD: These wolves are large, mysterious, appear and disappear without cause or warning, kill and maim randomly and create an unsettled undertone that tortures the afflicted.

Despite the complexity of the book, “Once I started writing, it took a life of its own,” said Jubb, who is married with six adult children and seven grandchildren.

He compared the book to a cross between Jack London and Tom Clancy.

Eric Jubb’s website address is www.ericjubb.com.