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- [00:00]
Donald D. Overton, Jr.
Foreign.
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Planet Tyrus
What It Is welcome to another exciting adventure of Planet Tyrus podcast with yours truly, Planet Tyrus and I'm honored today to have a very special guest, Mr. Donald D. Overton, Jr. He is a US army veteran, Veterans Advocate and former National Executive Director of the Blinded Veterans Association. He entered active duty in the US army on February 2, 1988 and served as a 31K combat singular and deployed with the Advanced party in the 82nd Airborne Division to Saudi Arabia in August of 1990 in preparation for Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Unfortunately, he was blinded and wounded in combat during a bunker explosion in Operation Desert Storm. Overton has over 30 years of experience and service and leadership across veteran organizations, including and not exclusive to Executive Director, Director of Policy and Government Relations, National Officer, National Board Member, Post and Chapter Command, and Veteran Claims Representative. He's also worked as a Project Manager and subject Matter expert for an online military and Veterans Benefit Navigator and Calculator system. In April of 2026, New York Post had reported that Overton was using ray ban meta AI glasses after more than 30 years without sight. The glasses use voice commands and AI to help identify clothing colors, read menus, recognize faces and provide navigation assistance. Overton said he realized the technology was revolutionary as soon as he put the glasses on and literally in June 2026, Meta announced that it would donate Ray Ban Meta AI glasses to every blind veteran in America. The program was inspired by Overton and his experience with the glasses. Meta said the free program is designed to help veterans read documents, navigate their surroundings and live more independently with hands on and training provided through partners including the Blinded Veterans Association. So without further ado, I think we got a cool little commercial we're going to run and then we will get talk to the
- [02:18]
Donald D. Overton, Jr.
I'm a United States army veteran, having served with the 82nd Airborne Division when I lost my eyesight in Desert Storm from a bunker explosion, I also lost my independence. The moment I put on my Ray Ban Meta glasses, I got my independence back. Hey Meta, Read this letter.
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Don, I wanted to personally thank you.
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Hey Meta, where's the blue shirt?
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That's the one.
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I can go out to dinner with my wife and have a normal date night. Hey Meta, are there burgers on the menu? I'm excited for other veterans to discover them. Hey Meta, where's the flag?
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It's just to the right of you.
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To other veterans out there, Ray Ban Meta glasses have changed my life and they can change yours.
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Planet Tyrus
Mr. Overton, first of all, let me say thank you for your service and thanks for doing the show today. I really appreciate it. That was a very touching commercial. And we hear. We hear so much about the negativities of AI today, but here is truly where AI is changing lives for the better.
- [03:24]
Donald D. Overton, Jr.
Couldn't agree with you more. Tyres. First and foremost, thank you for having me. And I would be remiss if I didn't come right out of the gate and say love from my wife, Peggy. We're both great followers and big fans. We really enjoyed last night, the little pointing skit.
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Planet Tyrus
Oh, thank you.
- [03:40]
Donald D. Overton, Jr.
Phenomenal. You were phenomenal. Put us to bed with a smile, so. But you're spot on, Tyrus. There's some concern that's out there around privacy issues, but what we really look at here is the significant enhancement and improvement to quality of life for so many individuals out there in the disability community and MET is really leading the way on this. They engaged us years ago in co design, so we actually got to work with their design teams in the wearables division to help ensure that the technology that they were bringing to market was going to have these significant quality of life impacts. And we're getting to live it right now and it's just continuing to improve
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Planet Tyrus
every day, you know, because it's a truly amazing story. Can you. Do you mind taking us back to how life was before the accident?
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Donald D. Overton, Jr.
Yeah, absolutely. So, obviously before the injuries, I was wounded, you know, over 35 years ago now. So during Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, grew up, you know, as normal, I guess, as life can be for any of us. I was an athlete, I was very active. The military offered me an opportunity to do some things that other members of my family had done that I wanted to experience and I wanted to take it to the next level. Thus my desire to join the 82nd Airborne Division to serve with a unit that was really always at the forefront of anything that was, you know, being prepared for our country to try to either defend or to go out and ensure that our interests were protected. So Lake was really quite normal for me until, you know, I experienced the blast. I was in and out of consciousness. I was in a medically induced coma for a period of time. I also had a traumatic brain injury and other injuries as well as a result of the blast. So. And I just remember fully waking up and emerging after a couple of weeks at Walter Reed and I was literally being bathed by my father, which was an interesting thing too, as you can imagine as a grown man, you know, so. But yeah, that was. That was kind of the storyline of, you know, Normal life. And then all of a sudden out. I have just a little bit of residual vision in one eye, totally blind in the other. And life since the injury was really challenging to say the least.
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Planet Tyrus
Yeah, because you go from such an active life to. I hate to use the word hindered, but, you know, a lot of us don't realize how much our vision enables us to do every aspect of our life. You know, there's certain things that I think. I think vision, I mean, deafness is another one, but I think vision, it just kind of. There's also a level of protection there, you know, because you, for a guy who was. Who's visually needed those aspects when and in your line of work and what you were doing for our country to suddenly just be in. Is it pitch darkness? Is it a darkness, if you don't mind me asking, like when. Because when you hear the word blind, you know, you hear this grays and color lights effect or. Or is it just for you. Anyways, was it just blackness and the one completely blind eye?
- [06:45]
Donald D. Overton, Jr.
Yeah, so it was blackout. Blind in both originally suffered, you know, open globe wounds. So both of my eyes, literally open wounds, had retinal damage. So I did as much damage as you can possibly do to the ocular systems. I was very fortunate and had some phenomenal surgical teams out of Johns Hopkins that came into Walter Reed. Some pioneering surgeries probably a few years earlier would have experienced this level of a blast. They probably would have nucleated both eyes just because the trauma would have been that expensive. But they spent countless hours. My surgeries were anywhere from 12 to 15 hours of run. And they were surgical teams going in and out and just phenomenal stuff. So, yeah, it was blackout and then a slow emergence when they started taking bandages off and things. There was a little bit of light perception in the one eye. And then the best restorative vision that I ever experienced was. And I would tell people it was kind of like looking through an aquarium, you know, everything was just a blur. There's no way to focus. You got some light perception, but outside of that, you know, you lose the ability to process your environment.
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Planet Tyrus
That had to be. Forget the physical, the physical trauma, but mentally, I mean, things like depression, a sense of no purpose. I mean, a lot of veterans deal with that. As, you know, when they come out of the service, there's this. They have this tremendous amount of purpose and all of a sudden it's not there anymore. And it can be really, really detrimental. Suicides, drug addiction, alcohol, all those things. But not having a Sense of purpose and at the same time, being handicapped from the result of serving your country. Was there a particularly rough period?
- [08:34]
Donald D. Overton, Jr.
Multiple rough periods. And you did a phenomenal job really kind of laying that out and presenting it. So, yeah, law alone, first marriage deteriorated instantly. I've really found myself isolated and trying to figure things out. You know, you go through the medical discharge process of being medically retired from the military. So to your point, you lose that sense of camaraderie, that sense of purpose, and it's instant isolation. All of a sudden, you go from being part of a unit, being part of a team, to you're all alone and you're in the world. And now not only are you alone, but you're trying to figure out, how do I put my life back together again? And it's a struggle. It takes a lot of time. And I look back at having the panic attacks, trying to go to college and being blind and having to use all of this different assistive technology. And I used to carry a backpack of assistive technology around with me. And so trying to get over that. And then you lose the ability to socialize because as you can imagine, combat trauma, post traumatic stress disorder, a big thing about that is being able to scan your environment so you can feel safe in places that you're in. You lose all of that, so you find yourself isolating more and more. So literally, Tyrus. At one point, I was full agoraphobic, didn't leave the house. Almost to a point at one point in my life where I didn't leave a specific room of the house. And so isolation was real.
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Planet Tyrus
What was it? Family, friends, something within you? What was it that brought you out?
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Donald D. Overton, Jr.
My spark was Vietnam veterans. They were the generation before me, and they had been there for me during my time at Walter Reed. They did phenomenal things for myself and my family during the transition. And fortunately in my community, a couple of Vietnam veterans heard that I was struggling. They came out and they literally grabbed me by the neck and just said, let's go, you're going to get active again. They brought me down to what they called the hut, which is where they met monthly. They did stuff pretty much every day, but I cut my teeth in veteran service work, learning how to do claims to represent my fellow brothers and sisters in the VA claims process. And that was really the catalyst for the next 30 years of my life and military and veterans advocacy, becoming a subject matter expert, lobbying for legislation on Capitol Hill, dealing with both chambers, and really trying to ensure that we could create the best Opportunities for all of our men and women transition out of active duty.
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Planet Tyrus
So it's amazing. You were in this dark moment and then you found purpose and you formed and you fought, you found, you formed another team and, and then we fast forward 30 years, you, you gained your, your independence back. You're, you've become comfortable, you have other things to work on. What led you to these phenomenal glasses? The Meta. The Meta glasses.
- [11:30]
Donald D. Overton, Jr.
I have to thank matter for it. I was very fortunate to have received a, an email that invited me to a co design session. I had never had any touch points with them. I went ahead and agreed. I wanted to find out what was going on. I had no idea. It was just, you know, will you come and partner and participate in a co design with us? And I got there and I met the team at Meta on the wearable side as well as others in the team, and it just became this camaraderie and this connection. We found a way to really look at the technology that was coming out and how could we ensure that the maximum number of individuals would benefit from it. And so taking my unique life experiences, factoring that into the design elements and then continuing to build off of that, and so we stayed engaged in those processes and it's just been working step by step across time and continuing to do that, we continue to work in co design. And you made a point earlier, not just for blind, but, you know, folks that are deaf and hard of hearing, they've come out with the new display glasses that are going to help with that as well. And there's just so much additional looking at folks that are dealing with cognitive challenges. So aging populations, every group out there is going to benefit from this technology.
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Planet Tyrus
What was it like that first time you put them on? Was it kind of like, whoa, or was it. Was it a huge adjustment?
- [12:56]
Donald D. Overton, Jr.
You know, like, it's tyre. I'll be honest with you, it was the easiest thing I've ever done in my life. I put the glasses on, we began to drive it and then I started challenging the technology and I challenged it more and more. There are certain points in time where I was connecting with the wearables design teams and telling them, I got the glasses that do this and they're like, no way, the glasses can't do that. I said, watch, you know, we can do it. And so the technology continues to evolve, the teams continue to listen. And for me, you know, I was able to take that backpack of technology and there's nothing I can't do without the glasses. That's the beauty of this from my independence and hand free independence for, you know, I used to be a guide dog handler. I use a cane now, you know, that takes one hand instantly out of the equation. The glasses, I put them on. I can use it for navigation, I can use it for hands free communication. If I'm in a, if I'm in a bind, I can ping a sighted volunteer on the other end or a friend or family member through BE my eyes or AIRA or these other integrations and I can have a sighted person look through my glasses and help assist me with whatever I'm dealing with at that time.
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Planet Tyrus
That is absolutely. And of course you being who you are, your leadership and how you turned combat injury into decades of service, policy, work, advocacy and leadership for other blind veterans. And of course, as soon as you did, the goal was you got them in April and by the time June came around, they were getting sent to every veteran who needed them. And that's absolutely amazing.
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Donald D. Overton, Jr.
It is. And that just speaks to Meta. It's the opportunity that meta from a corporate model. And I'll share this just really quick. When I first began engaging with the team at Meta, they didn't really understand blind etiquette. Right. How do you deal with blind people and most people don't. They instantly realized that they had a gap there and so they began sensitivity training. And now you can go on any med campus, anywhere. And if a blind person walks in with a cane, almost every member of that team knows how to interact with a blind person, knows how to guide a blind person, knows how to, you know, work alongside. And it was the same thing. I was very fortunate to do a fireside chat with the chief technology officer, Boz and you know, we started having the conversations and they were very interested. They saw this opportunity and then, you know, it just coincided so perfectly with UFC at the White House in America 250 and Dana White making the announcement of the free glasses. So it just speaks volume, largest technology donation in the world in history. Meta doing this for blind and low vision veterans. Amazing.
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Planet Tyrus
And of course it's during the 250 and we just keep seeing more and more stories of American patriotism. And I'm glad to see that those stories and we're showing the love and respect that is long overdue to our veterans, especially our men and women who served who didn't come back the same way they left. There's still a ton more work to do. What are some of the things that you're working on in the future for More veterans.
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Donald D. Overton, Jr.
Yeah. I think the biggest issue right now around the technology on that front is what we're hoping to be able to overcome. There's concerns around privacy, and I think folks really need to understand that. We're surveilled all the time. Right? Yeah.
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Planet Tyrus
That's kind of funny seeing how every corner there's a camera and every person has a phone. I fail to see where the word. I mean, even in your house, Alexa will be like, hey, you stayed up past 11 watching Skinemax. You know, like, there's very little privacy in the world today. And I think to pick that, to pick that out on, on something that is allowing individuals to not have to be in the dark, pardon the pun, in terms of being able to live a normal life. You know, what's the worst thing that was going to happen? No one wants to know. Your algorithm, Anyone who sits next to you in a car is going to get it. You know, so it's like, I think that argument at this juncture, in this date and age is moot at this point to say, you know, it's a privacy thing. There is no more privacy in this, in this, in, in America today because of. Everybody is a, is a, is a recorder. Everyone's recording everything. Social media is. The news is 24 7. Social media is non stop, and people are always recording stuff. I think ridiculously, I can't. You know, you go to a concert and they want to record, enjoy the moment, you know, but maybe that's just. Just because I'm an old man. Maybe I'm just different that way.
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Donald D. Overton, Jr.
I think we're. Maybe we all are. But thank you for your passion on that because that's really one of the biggest challenges right now. And I marvel at it because you just really eloquently put all of my talking points together. I sat with members of Congress that had privacy concerns, and there are certain states that have privacy concerns. And I pull up their social media and I said, but you're already putting this all out there publicly to begin with. There's nothing more I can get. What would be great for me, Tyrus, is if I could into a room if I go to an event. And my glasses, if I can just scan, like a person with normal vision can do that, and my glasses just say, you know, Bill and Sarah are over to the left. And, you know, just, maybe just people in my contacts, whatever it is, people that have allowed me to share that level of information for them, that's all we're looking for. Don't, don't stifle it. I will say, you know, there was. There was an absolute ban on this technology at the White House, but they made an exception for us for ufc. So we had the first pair of Ray Ban meta glasses at the White House on the South Lawn for the event. And hopefully that continues to set the trend to understand nothing bad happened.
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Planet Tyrus
Yeah, no. And I would argue if they would just do everything with IDs on social media in the first place. Knowing somebody's first name when you meet is not. Is not an issue. I think it's just. That's kind of a. We're very sensitive about stuff, but at the same time, a Guy can have 17 accounts with fake names pretending to be a little girl. That's fine. Apparently, that's not. That's more dangerous than shopping around, than knowing someone. Yeah. I walk in the room, and they're like, oh, hey, it's George. And I'm like, no, I'm on Tyrus. Nope, that's my legal name. So it's. And I'm not offended. I'm not hurt. It's not the end of the world. Not. Not like my bank account number is going across. You know, it's not James Bond. It's just common decency for people who desperately need to feel when they walk into a room, just as normal as everybody else.
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Donald D. Overton, Jr.
And again, thank you for.
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Planet Tyrus
Thank you so much.
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Donald D. Overton, Jr.
Hopefully, we can use you for your advocacy on Capitol Hill.
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Planet Tyrus
Anytime. Absolutely. Anytime. Again, Mr. Overton, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for your service and continued success and enjoying this great celebration of our 250 years in this great, amazing country.
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Donald D. Overton, Jr.
Appreciate you, Tyrus. Thank you for this opportunity and blessings for the future, sir.
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Planet Tyrus
Thank you very much.
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Donald D. Overton, Jr.
Have a great day. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir.