Tim Nolley is a swell guy, but he’s always had a bit of an altitude.

A Hawaiian Airlines pilot, Nolley spends his workdays some 6 miles high. Yet, despite his admitted penchant for the rarefied strata, Nolley remains well grounded, as evidenced by his commitment to public service.

Later this month Nolley and eight others will travel to Japan to climb legendary Mount Fuji as part of a pledge drive that will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.

“Let’s put it this way,” Nolley says. “If a person is living his or her life wholly focused on themselves, they are not really living, are they?”

The grandson of a B-17 waist gunner, Nolley was weaned on films like “The Sands of Iwo Jima.” He joined the Marine Corps immediately after high school and served as an armored amphibious vehicle crewman, helping to transport Marine infantry from Navy ships to the beach and inland.

During long weeks in the field, too hot or too cold, sleep-deprived and longing for a hot meal and a shower, Nolley would turn his sights to the skies.

“(What I was doing) certainly cannot be compared to the trials of combat, but when I would see Marine Corps aviation assets go screaming by overhead, I can remember vividly deciding that that’s what I wanted to do with my life.”

After leaving the military, Nolley returned to Michigan and started washing airplanes and cutting grass along the runway at Prices Airport in Linden, Mich., in exchange for flight lessons. After moving to California a year later, he began working as a forklift operator and warehouse worker while working to obtain his pilot’s licenses.

Nolley eventually settled in Hawaii with his wife, whom he met while studying Japanese language at Waseda University. His devotion to aviation paid off with a prized job at Hawaiian Airlines. But despite his personal success, Nolley still feels great loyalty to those who serve in the military. For him the Mount Fuji fundraising project is simply a way of giving back. His employer has already committed a generous pledge to the effort.

“Those that have been injured physically and psychologically need extra attention and resources,” he said. “It is sad and makes me extremely angry that our government cannot or will not do what is necessary to help those veterans. … Organizations like Wounded Warrior Project are helping to fill the need between what the Veterans Administration gives and what is actually needed.”

To contribute to the drive, visit 808ne.ws/1huAaRJ.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.