Similarities and Differences

I see many similarities between Apocalypse Now and The Things They Carried. One of the main similarities I see is the highly disturbing part of war. For example, I felt extremely disturbed when Kurt Lemon died, the soldiers began to sing Lemon Tree. In Apacolypse Now, when Clean dies, the tape from his mother is still playing, and she's telling him to stay safe.  Meanwhile, Lance is too concerned about the dog to care that Clean had just been hit and died. The disturbing part of part of these events is the lack of compassion.  Singing Lemon Tree and searching for a dog when one of your fellow soldiers just got killed seems like an extremely inappropriate thing to do is those circumstances. Listening to Clean's mother tell him to come home while the captain is holding his dead body is just gross irony.
On the contrary, Apocalypse Now and The Things They Carried have some big differences.  In Apocolypse now, there is almost always action.  Whereas in the things they carried, there was almost no action, just stories and experiences.  Only a few men died, and they never were in an actual combat like the Captain in Apocalypse now.  I wonder if the movie had over emphasized what was actually going on in Vietnam, or if the two groups just had completely different missions.  Tim O'Brien was in the jungle while the Captain was always along a shoreline or in a boat.  Was that a more dangerous area to be in, or did the movie just over emphasize how dangerous it was for dramatic affect?