I remember reading where a two ship patrol of F-14's could have scored a few kills on Iraqi MiG's but the AF AWACS couldn't break the Navy's security code in order to tell the Tom's to turn off their radars. The Iraqi MiG's saw the big radar of the Tomcat, did a 180 and bugged out before the Tomcats could get them. And of course, the problems of the single mission Tomcat were only highlighted by the conflict and likely gave Dick all the evidence he thought he needed to cancel the program.
There was at least one incident during the Gulf War that I saw a pretty thorough brief on where a pair of F-14's possibly could have gotten some kills but did not because of comms problems, the AWACS couldn't talk to them. There was no grand conspiracy and the Iraqi's did not run away, they flew right under them. It resulted in a Saudi F-15 pilot in getting 2 kills, shooting down a pair of Mirage F-1's.
I have read some of RADM Gilchrist's articles and found them to be pretty biased. 'If only we would do what I say, all of Naval Aviation's problems would be solved' seems to be his general attitude. The Tomcat is an old design that is past its prime, even the F-14D was just an improvement the same old tired design. They are maintenance headaches and take many man hours for every hour of flight (sounds a lot like a Prowler). Most importantly, they cost a lot of money to maintain. They gave good service, let them pass into the sunset gracefully.
