If carried by someone of limited strength and endurance, perhaps could such sloppy handling take place?
No. The owner would have to have a mindset the Army would have recognized right away in boot camp as being unfit for duty. Kids could handle the gun out there and still be able to work it.
That being said, this was a combat situation. PFC Lynch may have forgotten to load the first round, or some such thing. The NRA was founded by Union officers after they walked the battlefield at Gettysburg and found such things as multiple loadings of powder and ball on top of each other. ...