But the saga of the five young men from Virginia —friends who grew up together and attended the same mosque — has taken a very different turn, moving from a tale of promise to one of despair for many of the relatives and friends they left behind.
There is sadness in their tight-knit Muslim community — and anger.
The five detained men, who grew up with modest means and still lived in small homes and apartments with their families, seemed as though they were on track to achieve good things.
Some of the men, whose ages range from late teens to early 20s, have been described by friends and neighbours as polite, quiet and kind. They went to public schools. Some were athletes.
Right up to the time that they disappeared a few weeks ago, they regularly attended prayer services at the mosque. Several of them went to a nearby gym five days a week, a gym manager said.
At least two of them were in college. Umar Farooq — whose family ran a computer business — was a business major at George Mason University. Another of the five, the soft-spoken Ramy Zamzam, had just started dental school at Howard University. He would have taken his first round of final exams last week.
Instead, he and his friends were sitting in jail cells in Pakistan, not yet charged but suspected of trying to join militants who are fighting US troops in Afghanistan.
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9:19 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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