Chaumont-Semoutiers Air Base

Quartier General d'Aboville
Part of Armée de Terre
Located near: Chaumont, Haute-Marne, France
Main Gate - 1962
Chaumont AB Location of Chaumont-Semoutiers Air Base, France
Coordinates	48°04′47″N 5°03′01″E / 48.07972°N 5.05028°E / 48.07972; 5.05028Coordinates: 48°04′47″N 5°03′01″E / 48.07972°N 5.05028°E / 48.07972; 5.05028
Site information
Controlled by	Armée de Terre
Site history
Built	1951
In use	1952–Present
Garrison information
Garrison	61e Régiment d'artillerie (61e RA) Aerial Surveillance Regiment

Quartier Général d'Aboville, formerly Chaumont-Semoutiers Air Base, is a French Army artillery base in France. It is located two miles (3 km) southwest of the city of Chaumont, Haute-Marne, just to the west of the Route Nationale 67 (N67) highway about 0.5 miles (1 km) north of Semoutiers-Montsaon in the Haute-Marne département of northeast France. During the early years of the Cold War, Chaumont-Semoutiers air base was used by United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE).

The area around Chaumont has a long history of American military presence. During World War I the Haute-Marne département was one of the bloodiest areas of France with many battles fought on its soil. In 1917, the headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force was located in the city of Chaumont, Haute-Marne. Starting in the mid-1930s, a grass airstrip was used near Chaumont by the French Air Force for training. After the fall of France, the German Luftwaffe also used the facility as a training station. After the war, the airstrip was left unused.

With the outbreak of the Cold War in the late 1940s, with the Berlin Airlift and the ongoing threat from the Soviet Union to Western Europe, negotiations began in November 1950 between NATO and the United States to establish air bases and station combat wings in France to meet European defense needs.

During the negotiations for selection of sites, the World War II airfield at Chaumont was proposed for expansion into a modern air base. The airfield was unused since the war and there were no plans for French civil or military use. An agreement was reached to develop Chaumont into a NATO facility and station United States Air Force tactical fighter-bombers there by 1953.

Construction of Chaumont-Semoutiers Air Base started on 25 January 1951, with much effort being made to have minimal facilities ready by November. Various delays, however, pushed runway construction back to October.