In fact, you are so wrong, I have to wonder if your friends were talking about the F-4, not the F-14. Since the F-4 doesn't have the swing wing, I don't think so. But then again the Major, who I'd also known from AFROTC days, was a bit of a blowhard.
The Tomcat was never meant to have those TF-30 engines either. When the Tomcat got the right engine, it started kicking ass like you would not believe.
I know, that's why I specified an -A model. I know the -As with the TF-30 couldn't live up to the design of the airframe and flight controls.
The fact remains that the primary design mission of the F-14, and the F-111B and F-4 before it, was fleet air defense against Soviet Naval bombers (Bears, Badgers, Tu-22, etc). Grumman built a good fighter out of that requirement, as had Mac. GD OTOH, with a lot of help from RSM, did not.
I always marvel when people try to argue with me about the Tomcat. Fleet Defense entails more than Soviet Bombers. The Tomcat needed the agility to defend against ALL air threats from Fighters, to Bombers, to Cruise missiles with the AIM-54. Even the A Tomcat would leave any version of the F-111 in the dust. Vertical fight, circles, any criteria you want. 4 F-111s could not kill a Tomcat close in or from distance. That plane was a pig in that mission. The F-111 did lots of things well, but none of them against another aircraft unless it was parked. The lessons learned from the F-4 put agility back on top of the list of features needed in the new aircraft. In the fighter role, the F-111 was a joke. I don't mean to be harsh, but it was. A great and beautiful airplane it was. A fighter, it was not. The Tomcat was a pure fighter like the F-15, not a missile truck. TF-30 Tomcats were regularly getting and staying behind MiGs of all stripes of that era and shooing them away from the fleet.