Structural strength of fighter aircraft?

I got a book about the Draken from my dad this christmas, it was filled with interesting stories. One story(that I found especially interesting) was about a pilot that experienced a series of pitch oscillations that were so powerful that he blacked out. When he came too the plane was flying straight and level, so he flew the airplane back to airfield and landed. It was calculated that the forces from the pitch movements had exceeded 19G’s. The plane was checked and was put back into service. There are other stories of Drakens having midair collisions, or having ended up in the forrest after a bad landing. Very seldom the planes were written off, and a very large majority was put back into service again.

The Viggen was built to handle 12G’s, which seems to me to be quite low compared to the Draken. I don’t know how much G’s the Gripen airframe can take, but 12 G’s is avaliable to the pilot should he need it.

How do these planes compare to those of other countries? Does anyone have any interesting facts or funny annecdotes? 🙂