‘Excellent adventure’

QUINCY — Veterans Operation Creation’s Veterans Day show Wednesday will span the decades with silliness and music.

“We’re calling it ‘Emma and Mikky’s Excellent USO Adventure,’” said director Cassi Nelson. “They don’t understand (what) a USO show (is), so they’re going back in time and kidnapping acts from previous USO shows to come give a show in Quincy.”

If that plot line sounds vaguely familiar, it should. It’s a takeoff on the movie “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” with Emma Galloway and Mikky Greely as the time-traveling duo and VOC founder Daniel Chism as their irascible guide. The pair will travel through the decades gathering stars like Dolly Parton, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley to entertain the audience. 

“Each reenactor did their own research and is putting on their own little vignette,” Nelson said. “It’s a walk through history.”

The USO, or United Service Organization, is a nonprofit organization that, among other things, brings celebrity entertainers to U.S. military installations all over the world, both to entertain servicemembers and to convey to them the nation’s support, according to the organization’s website. It was first formed in 1941 as the U.S. was teetering on the brink of entering World War II, to keep up the morale of soldiers and sailors far from home and continues to this day.

“A USO show is something that all of us veterans have experienced at least once in our service time, if not multiple times,” Nelson said. “We did a USO show two years ago and they seem to be hits. The veterans really seem to love them.”

The time travel special effects may include strobe lights, and there’s a moment at the end of Act 1 that includes some combat noises, Nelson said, so veterans who are sensitive to those things should be aware ahead of time.

Chism, a Marine Corps veteran, started Veterans Operation Creation in 2018 to connect local veterans and active service members with the local community. The VOC Singers at Memorial Day events and other patriotic occasions, and the group brings presentations to schools during Veterans Week. For last year’s Veterans Day celebration, VOC brought country music star Coffey Anderson to perform in Quincy, and in 2024 staged a USO show with a specifically World War II theme.

The show is free to veterans; for everyone else, general admission is $10, or $5 for students and seniors.

“(The Veterans Day concert) is to give community enrichment to veterans specifically,” Nelson said. “Sometimes getting to go see shows is difficult for veterans; they tend to just stay at home because of large crowds, large noises and things like that (mean) it’s not always accessible for a lot of veterans.”

'Emma and Mikky's Excellent USO Adventure'

7 p.m. Nov. 11

Quincy Middle School PAC

16 Sixth Ave. SE, Quincy

veteransoperationcreation.com

    Veterans Operation Creation’s USO show Wednesday will feature reenactments of famous entertainers from the 1940s to today.
  

    The VOC Singers sing the national anthem at George’s Fourth of July celebration. The group performs at patriotic events and school assemblies.