Hal Caudle came to Pompano in 1925 from North Carolina, joining the US Coast Guard as a 17 year old and stationed at Port Everglades. His duties included patrolling the Atlantic ocean out to the Bahamain Islands and South to Cuba intercepting smugglers and bootleggers bringing in illegal whiskey from these Islands.

Hal was aboard one of the patrol boats that stopped a “rum runner” in the Gulfstream, subsequently the bootlegger got control of the CG Cutter, shot and killed the skipper and a government agent aboard and threatened to kill all the crew members.

Hal and the Government agent, before he was shot and killed, jumped the bootlegger in an unguarded moment and disarmed him. The Agent being shot in this action.

The bootlegger was tried and convicted of the murders and was hanged two years later in the seaplane hanger at Port Everglades. This was the only execution ever to take place in Broward County..

After leaving the service, Hal married and settled in Pompano, raising his family and forming a plumbing and gas company. Hal was a true pioneer, and even at his young age acted and participated in a life threatening situation that many older men were never faced with.


COMMENTARY BY BUD GARNER
This is my favorite story.
Hal M. Caudle was just 17 years old when he engaged in the life or death struggle with James Horace Alderman, named "Pirate of the Gulfstream" by the newspapers of that day. I am proud to have known Hal Caudle, and to consider he and his family as friends. I know lots of you feel the same way. It is the unsung heroes, such as Hal Caudle that makes Pompano, and this country as great as it is today. You must read the whole story.