Metro Atlanta veteran attempting to hike Mount Everest

A local Navy veteran is taking on the challenge of a lifetime in April. He's attempting to summit Mount Everest. 

If he's successful, he will be the third American over 60 to do it and the first from Georgia.

The backstory:

Retired Lt. Commander Brian O'Malley had always dreamed of soaring to great heights.

"My ambition since I was about 5 years old was to be a pilot. And then I wanted to be a fighter pilot of aircraft carriers," O'Malley said.

That's exactly what he did - first graduating from the Naval Academy and then flying F14s for about a decade. But a few years ago, O'Malley had a different kind of mountain to climb, a brutal recovery from back surgery to fix life-long pain.

Retired Lt. Commander Brian O'Malley (FOX 5)

"During that process of rehab and whatnot, when I wasn’t doing actual physical therapy a lot of times, I was on the couch watching videos. One of the videos I was watching pretty much all day long and all night long if you ask my wife was Mount Everest videos," he told Good Day's Lindsay Tuman. "Mount Everest has always been intriguing to me. Being on top of the world, and just what’s involved in it."

That fascination turned into motivation.

"That motivated me. I thought to myself, 'Well, at a minimum, if I get through this, and my back is 100%, I would like the opportunity to go to Nepal and do Everest Base Camp,'" he said.

Dig deeper:

Earlier this year, he did just that alongside his brother-in-law.

"(It was) incredible despite the hardship both of us. I think it was probably one of the most challenging things that we’ve done ever in our lives was this two-week trek," he said.

They endured two weeks of below-freezing temperatures to make the 5,000-meter climb to base camp, even experiencing an earthquake. O'Malley said it was worth it.

Retired Lt. Commander Brian O'Malley at base camp (Courtesy of Brian O'Malley)

"To me, it was unbelievable. It was really unbelievable - the God’s earth, God scenery there in the Himalayas was absolutely incredible," he said.

When they got home, O'Malley said he was ready for more. Now he's gearing up again, this time to reach the summit.

"The pinnacle obviously would be to summit. If I reach a foot on the Khumbu ice fall, and that’s all I can do, well, I gave it my best shot," he said.

What's next:

The trek isn't just personal; it's also a mission to raise money for Tunnel to Towers, a nonprofit that helps provide housing for families of first responders and Gold Star Families. He'll have them in mind as he embarks on his biggest challenge yet.

"If you have a dream, don’t let somebody tell you that you can’t do it. You can do it. You gotta put your head to it. You gotta put some physical work to it, but you can do it," O'Malley said.

It's a thought he'll hold on to while he climbs to the heights he once flew.

What you can do:

If you want to help O'Malley with his fundraising mission for Tunnels To Towers and to learn more about the organization and the work in Georgia, you can visit his page here.